My DH is beginning to get up later, take hour long naps and go to bed earlier than usual. He had a complete physical and he is very well physically. I have read that this is not unusual since mental activity is exhausting for people with Alzheimer’s. Just wondering if there is anything more I can do to give him more energy. Protein bars? Supplements? Foods? I just don’t want him to sleep away what is left of his best life. Thank you.
This is not his best life any longer.
No protein bar will help
As he sleeps later and goes to bed earlier what you can do is
Keep a schedule as best as you can.
Do not fixate on Breakfast has to be cereal in the morning, Lunch a sandwich or soup in the afternoon and Dinner a larger meal at around 5. He will have times when he is "better, more alert" give him his largest meal then. So if he is not hungry or picks at his meal you know he has had at least 1 healthy meal.
When you can take walks, go for a ride keep him occupied. There will come a time when trying to get him in the car will be a 2 person job and even then it is risky as it is easy for him to slip or twist wrong. (I had to park the car in a particular way or we had to approach the car from a certain way or he would try to sit in the wheel well (where your feet go) because he was turned around in his mind as to how the car was)
Just enjoy what the two of you can do now as that will change...
I'm a year out from cancer and 6 weeks post-post chemo TX. I think every single day "TODAY I am going to go all day and accomplish a LOT" and w/o fail, about 2 pm, I am pulled towards my bed. I may sleep an hour or three. I may read for a couple hours..but bottom line, though I am teased by DH as being an 'old lady' for napping---I need to care for me...for the first time in my life.
I may NEVER get over this, and I have to accept it.
I do have a sweet friend who pointed out to me that I get more done in 6 hours than a 'normal person' gets done in 16. That comment helped me to see that I a, very busy when I am up---and slowing down makes me anxious, so I go at the pace that's OK for me.
Protein bars were a staple through chemo--I could not eat, so one protein bar a day really helped keep my RBC in the ok range. But they weren't a miracle, by any means.