Posted 6/13/23
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. -Psalm 73:23
A week from today I will be in the Enterprise Center doing 9 hours of stairs. My wife and I essentially have the arena to ourselves other than visits from staff and media. The same amazing facility that will soon hold Clapton, LL Cool J, Alicia Keys, and Bryan Adams…and tens of thousands of adoring fans, will hold me, my wife, and a very small smackerel of colleagues and media folks for my Day 2 shark jump. 🙂 I am very excited to share with you from there! 🙂
It reminds me a little bit, though, of the cavernous feeling of loneliness that many with dementia, caregivers, and many seniors in general, must feel in their own homes when they are isolated. You look around and think of the wonderful things that have happened there. You imagine the sounds, the spectacle. You see remnants, pictures, and signs…but the events are over. All there is now is you and possibly a spouse or a pup. We all need community, friends. We’re not designed to do this deal alone. Isolation has the negative health affect of around a pack of cigarettes every day… That is one reason why I wanted the amazing Enterprise Center as one of my backdrops! We need to see this and feel the aloneness for ourselves before we can fully understand the plight of those alone.
I truly hate this disease and what it does. My mom all but stopped going to the community fitness center because she was still sharp enough to understand that she was repeating herself and messing up dialog, and her peers actually made fun of her from their cognitively glass houses. Therefore it because easier to isolate. Then COVID gave us all a reason to isolate…and millions suffered. If we learned anything from Covid, we need to have learned that isolation kills too…
Join my personal fight against the disease next week. I will FB Live daily, I will do some TikToks. I MAY even Twitch a little, but probably not on the streaming service. 😉
Here is my Longest Day Link…I have a ways to go to get to my goal, but we will get there somehow 🙂
https://act.alz.org/site/TR?px=14575499&fr_id=16164&pg=personal
#EndALZ
#RunninTilImPurple
Worth a note: Another group for which I raise funds is SeniorAge. On the tab above labeled Runnin’ Til I’m Purple, there is a donation link for them. SeniorAge does amazing things for helping with isolation. The senior centers for one are a wonderful opportunity to have community with other seniors, have a hot lunch for a small voluntary donation, join groups, participate in wellness programs, and live life together. They also call thousands of people every week and what they call “phone reassurance” (over 10k last month!!) just for a simple “Hey friend… just calling to check in on you and see how everything is going”. We need Area Agencies on Aging and they are very worth your support as well!
Update: Mom had extreme nausea two days ago, but seemed to be over it yesterday when I came by at lunchtime. She is having a harder time swallowing than ever these days and her color is off. Still has some dropping consistent with vascular dementia/TIA activity as well. Yet she chuckles when I come and when I say something corny. 🙂 She is a stronger fighter than any hockey enforcer! So am I…