I put together a collection of circular conversations (my concept) that Cheryl and I have often. These conversations happen at night mostly and by night I mean early evening to overnight to morning at breakfast time. I cannot say whether they are more prevalent in the darker Winter times or not.

There is something wrong with the toilet in this bathroom.

I had forgotten about this one until she told me about it very early this morning. She had gotten up to urinate in the early morning hours after having slept for about three to four hours. As I waited for her to come back I heard the toilet flush two times perhaps a minute apart. When she did not come back to bed a few minutes after the second flush I got up to check if she needed help.

She told me – there’s something wrong with the toilet. It doesn’t fill back up. The bathroom lights are on a dimmer and turned down very low at light. It is hard to see the water in the bowl. Neither of us has our glasses on. (smiley face here)

My usual response is – I think it is okay but I will check it in the morning and we can get a plumber if we need to.

The conversation about the plumbing was still in her head when she got up and washed her face this morning. But thinking back most times we have had this conversation at night in the dark she recognizes it as something to not be alarmed about in the morning.

It is an interesting delusion about plumbing that seems to appear when she is up at night and worried about leakage. Her whole focus is on getting to the toilet quickly.

I also do not think it is necessarily Parkinson related. I have had some strange dreams about plumbing and hurrying to find a men’s room somewhere there was not one available. Usually at 4AM when I need to go there is when this dream has awakened me.

When I have plumbing dreams, I wake up and wonder what that was all about. When Cheryl has plumbing dreams they seem to turn into reality for a bit or maybe she is not completely awake. She was concerned recently that those other people need to know that the toilet is broken and maybe we should put a sign on it until the plumber gets here. (another smiley face) I responded that I would do that if it was not working properly in the morning.

After helping her back to bed I used the toilet myself to make sure it was just her brain gas-lighting us both.

Carpe Diem.