Posted 12-20-19
I just a quick thought or two or three about our topic as I gather my goods up and head to a funeral of a wonderful damsel-in-distress-no-more mother of a good friend/colleague. As I was driving and praying (with my eyes open, thank you very much) on the way to work today, an AT&T cell phone commercial came on the air that made me think of dementia. It said (extracted from the website to be sure I had it correctly): “We may slow your speed when our network is busy. Depending on your plan, this might be at any time or after the monthly threshold for your plan (such as 22GB or 50GB).” A couple thoughts:
- Boy, isn’t that just like dementia??? This time last year, mom’s network was busy! She was hyper-anxious and nervously scrambling for her bearings at most any point in the day and night. Oh, the horror of forgetting the basics of life. 🙁 I cannot imagine forgetting what is dangerous, like mom did, then replacing it, logically, with “Everything must therefore be dangerous!!!”. Her processing speed, if you will, slowed to a near stop because her network was so busy. Changing the analogy a bit, have you ever been in the shower proudly and loudly singing show tunes or 1970’s and 80’s TV show theme songs when someone did the unthinkable: flushed the toilet? Hot water gone. Replaced with ice cold mountain spring water. Its hot water network was busy, so it showed the speed… of the molecules… with ice cold water. I will never need a cardio stress test…just flush the toilet and if I remain upright I am fine.
- Might? Might? Slower speeds will strike quite quickly after the threshold is reached. Same in dementia. I see these S-17 ladies wear themselves out in frantic activity. Ultimately they end up, like mom and two of her original band members, wheelchair “bound” and no longer an escape risk…and moved in with the general population per Medicaid and company policy. Tragic!
- What sucks about limiting data speed and about limiting brain processing speed is the same: Just when you need it the most, the freaking toilet flushes on you.
Dementia stinks. It is like…everything. 🙁 Take a minute and reread this little poem I wrote a few weeks ago. It sums up why I keep writing articles about “Dementia is like” or “10 things you can learn about it by X”. It escaped explanation, but it demands attention nevertheless. 🙁 We simply must #EndALZ ! But until we do, we serve, we hug, we love, we visit, we pray…oh do we pray, we donate to causes that help, we give breaks to caregivers and we fight for a cure. 🙁
Update: Another peaceful day for mom. Her data plan is past, her network is slowed to 1G and she is still happy. Praise the Lord.
Thank you again for the Christmas cards for mom’s shower! Withe huge bundle my friends in Branson sent, we have to be over 100 now! She has smiled and listened to every one and will hear these next week as we pre-celebrate Christmas a few times. 🙂 Truly…thank you!
Note: No offense to AT&T…they all do it. 🙂