Mom was still zonked today. Teetering back and forth between blaming this slumberamasville season on disease progression or on over-medication is a common mental exercise we, like many of you, face these days. Facts: It does take time to build up enough of a chemistry from taking a medicine to start to work. Mom has…
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Understanding
Posted 3-30-19 One of the most challenging things about understanding Alzheimer’s and related dementia (and about mental illness) is misinformation and stigma. Why is it that we can work together and share information so effectively in other conditions like heart disease, stroke and cancer, but information, treatments and cure potential is all over the map…
Goaled Veins
Posted 3-29-19 Flashback, circa 1980. Location: Silver Dollar City (amusement park), nestled in the Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri. Setting: A simpler time and place, in the woods with mockingbirds mocking and crows crowing. The smell of cedar, pork rinds, somewhat damp visitors and joy permeates the air. Just up from the Rube Dugan’s Diving…
Time Out.
Posted 3-28-19 Mom was stable today. Typical for the last couple weeks…tired, fairly happy, not speaking clearly. She uses some of the most fascinating words! A couple of the Sweet 17 are having some significant challenges including one who was sent to time out (behavioral health hospital) to rework her meds. :(She is typically sweet, but…
Duct Tape Hell
Posted 3-27-19 Yesterday was a fun time with mom. She still struggles with Alzheimer’s-generated hallucinations and/or perhaps doesn’t have the words for what she wants to say….but she was happy. Boiling all of dementia life down to a smiley face or a frowny face is simplistic, but it I guess it makes for a starting…
Good Days: Past and Present
Posted 3-26-19 So much to write, such little time. 🙁 I have at least 10 articles in the works, but I also desperately need brain beauty sleep to wash my brain of worthless beta-amyloid plaques. Mom is doing much better again today. Peppy and genuinely pretty happy. She was a tad anxious, more than normal….but…
Interview With a Jayhawker
Posted late on 3-25-19 Nice trip down to see mom tonight. She is still tired…very tired…but happy and generally pretty darn good. She ate well in front of me with my stepdad feeding her, then we hung out for a while. She isn’t saying a lot these days, but on reflection I really feel like…
It’s Only Nine Months until Christmas. And, more importantly, three great videos of mom playing the piano this weekend…and some other thoughts in video form :)
Posted 3-25-19 9 months until Christmas…you done shopping yet? lol These were special piano sessions. 🙂 She hasn’t played in a week or so, so after long breaks with challenging times it is nice to hear her again. Piano is kind of a litmus test for how she is doing emotionally and somewhat physically (although…
Update and Sweet 17 Drama
Posted later on 3-24-19 Mom was struggling with physical exhaustion and weak legs when we have visited the last 2 days. We still had nice visits both days and even had a tad of piano time, a welcome surprise. 🙂 There was all sorts of drama among the Sweet 17 with a couple of my…
Bracing for the Winds
Posted 3-24-19 Why are we seemingly hard-wired as adventure-seekers and not emergency-preparers? Said differently, why do we wait until the storm to prepare for the storm? Do we learn from the storm when it is finished? I was thinking through this concept yet again after church today. (Note: If there is one finger pointed at…