Posted 5/11/22
I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
“Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout;
I the Lord have created it.
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’? –Isaiah 45: 7-9
You take the good, you take the bad, you take’m both and there you have…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Dementia.
Hi all. 🙂 I hope your week is going well. 🙂 Our next support group is already coming next week. The days and weeks just fly by like the condor-sized mosquitoes in Bolivar. If you want to attend the Zoom meeting (or the in-person one if you are from the Ozarks), shoot me an email at mark.applegate@senioragemo.org and I will add you to the ranks. 🙂
Boy howdy, what a difference a few days makes! If you remember Monday, I wrote a weekend extolling how great the weekend was. Here is the link: LINK. Here is a link to the wonderful News Leader coverage of the event: LINK. So, Monday I woke up and got in 6.3 miles running on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. I noticed a couple of mosquito marks on my arm and leg that were swelling up a little, but I didn’t think much of it since I am a stinging and biting bug magnet. yesterday I got up even earlier (4am) and hit the treadmill again, getting in just over 10 miles before going to work. I noticed the bites were much worse, but, again, didn’t think much of it until the itching and swelling started. I then noticed a nasty streak heading out from the bite and figured I should call it in to my teledoc. They looked at it and sent me to the Urgent Care a block from my work, who put me on some strong antibiotics and creams. It is now a mess. Everything is all swollen, itching like CRAZY, and tight. Running will have to stop for a few days. Working from home, very inconveniently. Sigh.
This. is. dementia.
This topic is perfect as an “introduction” to dementia. A pulling back of the curtain, if you will. Some days are great! Then, for no reason, things go haywire. Mom’s early- and mid-stage years (especially from 2016-20) were marked with a greater than Cedar Point Roller Coaster ride of ups and downs. My last 4 days of poopola are a micro-dump in the latrine compared to her’s, but they do point to it for your viewing and my itching (non)pleasure.
One day I would come by to see mom (about 4 years ago) and she would be just like the old days, for the most part. The next day she would be out of sorts…a nervous wreck. The next day, pretty good again. The next day she might have her shirt on backwards, or not on at all, when I showed up. The next day she might have a knot the size of a dollop of Baskin Robbins on her forehead. It was easy, and hard, and an absolute challenge dealing with ups and downs.
So, what do we do? We could take the good, and take the bad, (because) the facts of life are all about us…(See what I did in taking liberty with the song?) Or we could realize that it really isn’t all about us. It sure feels like it most days and it sure affects us a bunch, but can you imagine how THEY feel??? Sure, my last 4 days have been a roller coaster, but does the last two stinkers negate the first two? Only if I/we let it. I/we have to cling to the good days. We have to redirect. We have to break out the photo albums, if only for us, and recollect good days gone by and know that more will come. We have to turn off the TV news and the pity party and dig into the good. Sometimes it helps to jump sharks and tilt windmills like I have been doing for a few years now to help make sense of it…but we have to rest in the good days too. Take pictures. Write a journal of the good stuff. Do the stings and bites really sting? Yup. Bad. 🙁 There is still plenty of good even amid the stings and bug bites. Find it and cling.
Lastly, we could, and should, lean in on Christ and on prayer and on Bible reading and on meditation. There is good being made of bad. There is a plan. There is an end to this. There is heaven. The devil, disease, dementia, and death=vanquished. I hope He takes out the spiders and stinging bugs too while He is at it.
Stay strong, friends. If I can help, please get with me. We will soon beat this thing.
#EndALZ
#RunninTilImPurple
No update on mom. I missed seeing her yesterday. She is no longer in roller coaster mode…hasn’t been for over a year now. She is on Lazy River waiting on the next meal and, more importantly, on heaven.