Blue, Baseball, Virginia

Don’t be afraid to think outside your box or outside your house for that matter. The more you can incorporate these activities together the better off for everyone involved. You’re saving you some time and you are offering multiple stimulation to your patient. There are times when the AD will be a monster you can’t control and you just have to do the best you can on those days. Don’t forget that every single activity is probably going to be met with resistance. There’s not a single day that goes by that Granny doesn't tell Jenna or me that she doesn't want to do one of the activities. We gently urge her on and we almost always have a successful attempt.

Some activities, no matter how great an idea, are just going to be a flop. Aunt Mary moved back to Carthage from Memphis a few years ago. Just in time if you ask me! As I have mentioned before, she could convince Granny of just about anything. She and Uncle Tommy moved into a beautiful home just across town that just happened to have an in-ground swimming pool. David and I were in the process of building a new home where we now have our own pool, but at the time, Aunt Mary’s seemed like the perfect destination for some summer fun. Only if I could have gotten Granny to see it that way!

When we owned the golf course with Granny and Papa, she and I taught swimming lessons every June. We did that for years and years. I taught the beginners and Granny taught the advance swimmers. On the last day of the Swim Camp, she would teach them to dive. I knew how much she loved to swim so what a wonderful opportunity…I thought.

I explained to Granny that one of Aunt Mary and Uncle Tommy’s favorite forms of exercise was swimming. I dressed her in her bathing suit and threw a cover-up on her and slung her flip-flops on her. She wouldn't make the cover of Sports Illustrated, but it would work.

Shortly after we got to Aunt Mary’s house, we headed out back to the gated pool. Once inside the door, she proceeded to head over to a very lovely lounge chair to “watch you all swim.” Well, no ma’am, that ain't the plan!

“No, Granny, we are here to swim with you. We are just going to do a few laps, enjoy some sunshine and do a few water aerobics and then Aunt Mary has made us a lovely lunch.” (SUNSHINE, EXERCISE, SOCIALIZATION, ADVENTURE…man was this a good idea!)

“I’m not getting into that water. I can’t swim.” She declared.

“What! Of course you can swim! You and I taught swimming for heaven’s sake! We’ll just do a few laps.” I say as Aunt Mary and I lead her to the steps of the pool.

To make a very long story and what turned into an even longer day into a short antidote, let’s just say not only did we not do laps, but I couldn't get her to let go of the side of the pool. Not to be out done, Aunt Mary and I held onto the side also, one on each side of Granny and did several water aerobics. She would do the weakest version possible of each one and I was not a happy camper. There was absolutely no reason why she shouldn't be loving this. It was a beautiful summer day, the water was just the right temperature, and she’s here with three of her favorite people. (Delanie had come along and was swimming like a fish in the deep end while we are in the shallow end doing the equivalent of trying to coerce a cat to swim.)

Never one to admit defeat, we stayed in the water about 45 minutes moving her arms back and forth. Kicking her legs in and out. Squatting up and down. Clinging to the side of the pool like a lifeline. We got her out, dried off and went inside and changed and had a lovely lunch. Because AD is so unpredictable and what works today may not work tomorrow, I've learned the opposite is true. Just because you can’t get your patient to complete an activity today, does not mean that tomorrow it will not be a whole new experience. So the following week, we tried it again, and the next week. We did this off and on all summer. It just never clicked.

She constantly told me she felt like she was going to fall. No matter how much I explained that she was in water, so she could “fall” all she wanted to and it wouldn't hurt her since she would “float,” she convinced herself if she fell she would drown. Since I have never wanted to scare or frighten Granny, I just chalked it up to a great idea with a lousy execution.