Posted 8/25/20 The year is 2/3 over…or 4 months until Christmas depending on how you look at it.
“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” –Romans 8:25
Today’s Meme Week entries will all be about exercise and wellness. You will see why at the end. 🙂
Exercise and playing a musical instrument has been shown to fight off/delay dementia. Mom was diagnosed over a decade ago and has just in the last year and a half truly hit end stage. I firmly believe that her music and her exercising/healthy lifestyle helped it delaying the illness as well. Obviously this isn’t curative, but it bought mom well enough time to validate its success. Here are some links regarding music and exercise:
Music:
Exercise:
Quick meme note: A picture with words on it doesn’t automatically make it a meme. It needs to have some bite. Therefore, my mom meme isn’t technically one. It is almost more of an infographic. Regardless, they can and do also make powerful tools.
Last story:
I was thinking exercise for today’s edition because I just about ran myself into oblivion yesterday. I was intermittent running walking yesterday and enjoying myself as best I can while doing so by listening to a good audiobook. What I didn’t realize until my body reminded me is you do have to return the same amount of steps as you leave. I also tried out the appropriate path rather than crossing the highway (as requested on signs) and hadn’t realized it was an extra few miles (!) detour. In the end I ran/walked/gagged out about 9-10 miles on a 95 degree evening. I called my bride and told her I would be “coming in hot” to the house like a jet fighter. LOL. I made it, but barely. It was a good reminder that running isn’t simple gravity/physics. When you throw a ball up, it effortlessly responds by falling the same distance into your hand. When you run/walk 4 miles…you run/walk back too…and it is even harder. I should know this after running a full marathon 10 years ago…but I have a thick noggin. It does, though, remind me that the first half of mom’s dementia was comparably “easy” compared to the rest in many ways… We need to prepare, plan, and work through options while we are still fresh lest we crash and burn when times get harder and our knees start knocking.
Update: Mom’s hospice nurse certified her for another term of hospice care. She said (paraphrased) “(Mom) is sitting up and talkative even though it doesn’t make sense. Her vitals are within normal limits. She is very pleasant and cooperative. She has lost 6.2 pounds of water weight and seems to be about the same.” All things considered, that is good news.
#EndALZ