Conversations with the husband are rare these days. He often talks at length, unaware that his speech is unintelligible. Most of the time his control of speech muscles is minimal, but there are those exceptional times of clarity. It is then that I get a glimpse of what his mental status is.

Today I went over to him because he seemed to be restless, and I thought a little re-orientation would be helpful to calm him. We talked about his memory and who he remembered. I asked him if he knew who I was. He did.

“You’re my wife.”

“Well, I have two rings on my finger. One of them is yours.”

“How many rings have you got on?”

“I have two rings on my finger. You see this?” (holding up my hand)

“Yeah, I see that as four fingers.”

“Yep, and see the rings on that finger?”

“Yeah.”

“One of them is my wedding ring and the other one is yours. One of them is the diamond that you got for me, and the other is your wedding ring that they took off you at the hospital. They were afraid your hands would swell up and it would be too tight.”

“And what ring of mine are you wearing?”

“Your wedding ring.”

“Oh yeah. (pause) Are you married to me now?”

“Yeah, don’t you remember we got married?”

“No.”

“Well, how did I get to be your wife if we didn’t get married?”

(thinking hard) “Yeah.”

That was only one of the interesting exchanges today. Earlier he told me that another me came in the room from his left and joined into the me standing at the bedside, and I was transformed into someone even more me. I’m wondering if this isn’t the beginning of Capgras syndrome, which I’ve heard so much about with Lewy Body dementia. If only the other me’s were able to help out a little more, maybe I could get some rest. Wishful thinking…