Posted 7/30/21
At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. John 7:30
I pose the title of this post not to discuss Paleoanthropology or philosophy or religion, although I have very specific, young Earth Creation views on these topics. I ask it because I am just amazed at what we have arrived to on 7/30/21. March 4th, 2019 I wrote my first blog post on this platform although I had been writing about the topic for a few months from when mom arrived into the memory unit. (We played some catch-up). Some 654 articles and 9,000 subscribers later, here we are. We have seen mom go from cute-ly forgetful to acutely forgetful to wheelchair bound and unable to remember much of anything (as far as we can tell, that is…) and unable to communicate at all. She turns 77 next week and is holding on through many issues, listed here in no particular order:
- Seizures- Grand Mal and many small ones (potentially caused by stroke and/or TIA)
- Having Covid at least once
- Taking the Covid vaccine and still having her nose swabbed 10,000 times every time an unvaccinated employee brings it in yet again.
- Countless exposures to other ailments
- Daily potential to choke as her ability to swallow has greatly diminished to the point of drinking very thick liquids.
- Going from nearly daily visits from her kids (yours truly and my sibs) and 3x per day visits from our step-dad for every meal to zip/nada/zero for over 500 days now…and the harm that isolation brings
- Dozens of falls
- Stints in the behavioral health hospital to regulate her meds
- Bottles and bottles and bottles of meds
- Getting wrong meds, wrong amounts of meds, spitting out meds, and more that we know of these issues
- Thousands of meals of nursing home food…that alone will take down an elephant’s digestive system.
- Waving at us through the window and/or on an iPad
- Multiple roommates, some of whom were dangerous, some who were contagious, and others who died.
- Lack of oversite from impartial, third-party advocates (Ombudsman, hospice) and from family during the lockdown
- Weight gain, and loss, and gain, and loss
- All of the time just before we had to take her to the nursing home…multiple times of which she was in significant danger despite our best efforts.
- Other perils I failed to list and/or don’t know about.
What a challenging roughly 3-4 years it has been. So many challenges. My point? If you are entering into “our” world here, buckle up…it is hard.
I realize this isn’t much of an educational piece, but it is good to reflect on events like this (but don’t dwell…) Stay in the now. I, 99% of the time, do well in this, but today has been a reflecting kind of Friday.
Last consideration in a few pictures:
The majority of these have been within 4 years. This, friends, is a tragic disease and it needs to be defeated.
#EndALZ
Update: We had the best visit in weeks yesterday, although that doesn’t say much because we have had VERY FEW to compare it to. Mom was alert and seemed happier than she has been and it was a supreme blessing.
Have a great weekend, friends. Keep fighting for the end of this mess. Join my Walk To End Alzheimer’s Team if you get a chance or drop[ some coins in the collection jar. 🙂 Thank you all for all you do. 🙂
and my favorite: