bad burn for my mom :(
I took my mom out yesterday for her birthday and she mentioned that her internet connection was down. Which of course was my fault because I was tinkering with her Wifi on Sunday (which isn't the connection she uses for her computer--she uses a wire right from the modem). So I felt bad, which was her intent, and today I stopped by in the midst of errand running to see if I could figure out what was wrong. Turns out I did nothing wrong and it was the modem and I had to call AT&T to get talked through fixing it.
While I'm on speaker phone, my mom casually says, "Hey look at this," and shows me her arm.&...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - April 10, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
my cat and my dad
My rescue cat, Romeo, was doing something today. I don't even remember what it was--begging for food probably because he's on a diet. But for some reason I thought about my dad and tried to remember what my dad had to say about Romeo.
Then I realized, he never met this cat.
And that made me feel really, really sad.
I got Romeo almost 2 years ago shortly after his 9th birthday. He had had, as well as I can tell, 5 homes in the last year (before that, 1 home). He was afraid of everything, with severe PTSD to the point where he had to be sedated for six months or have a fear-induced heart attack....
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - February 21, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Aunt falls down
The view from my font window; beyond the fence
is a sidewalk and on the other side of the tree is the street.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that we in New England just got walloped with a huge snowstorm. My town got 38 inches of snow in one day and at one point supposedly snow was falling at 6 inches per hour. Lotta snow.
If you want to watch it in action, there is an awesome video (less than a minute) in time-lapse.
So you can imagine what it was like to shovel out of this insane mess, even with a snowblower.
After 3 days, I finally got my car out. I called my cousin and said ...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - February 14, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
alternate universes, or the "maybe" game
For some reason I started thinking about alternate universes today. Forgive my lack of scientific words, but there is a theory (not science fiction or fantasy, but a real actual scientific idea) called a Multiverse, that posits that everything that ever could have happened, did happen, just in some other world that lies parallel to ours. That makes me wonder if that place (those places) are the afterlife we dream of and hope for. In some of those worlds:
My dad is still alive and clear-minded and we visit Aunt Bert every Friday because she is also alive and clear-minded at 94 years old.
My gr...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - February 4, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
click to give $10,000 to Alzheimer's
I just got this message on Facebook, from Max Wallack:
I am a 16 year old sophomore at
Boston University who is dedicating his life to help Alzheimer’s
patients and their caregivers. In 2008, I founded PuzzlesToRemember,
which, by now, has distributed over 19,300 puzzles to Alzheimer’s
facilities around the world. I also volunteer 20 hours a week in an
Alzheimer’s research lab.
I recently learned that I am the
recipient of a $1000 grant from KidsWhoGive, which is a philanthropic
program run by Farm Rich Products. I will be donating these funds to
the Molecular Psychiatry and Aging Lab at BUSM. Donating ...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - January 31, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Xmas and Alzheimer's Aunt, and more awards
It is interesting to me to examine the difference in my feelings toward my dad's illness (absolutely Alzheimer's--hey someone should photoshop an Absolut ad for Alzheimer's) and toward my aunt's illness which may or may not be some kind of dementia, Alzheimer's or just generic insanity. Of course, she is not my dad (or my mom) so I'm more distant from the problem, and I was never close to her even before all this.
But I think the biggest thing is her children's inability to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
I saw Alzheimer's Aunt (AA) at my cousin's house on Christmas Eve. There was a mix-up over food; I was incorre...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - January 23, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Xmas and AA, and more awards
It is interesting to me to examine the difference in my feelings toward my dad's illness and toward my aunt's illness. Of course, she is not my dad (or my mom) so I'm more distant from the problem, and I was never close to her even before all this.
But I think the biggest thing is her children's inability to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
I saw AA at my cousin's house on Christmas Eve. There was a mix-up over food; I was incorrectly told there would only be snacks while we opened gifts, so I ate lunch first, and then got there to discover a huge meal laid out, so the fact that I didn't really eat anything caused ...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - January 23, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
two more awards, need more votes!
Healthline
I'm up for 2 more awards for this blog. For Healthline's Best Blog of 2012 contest, you can vote EVERY DAY on both TWITTER and FACEBOOK. Ends February 15, 2013
For the Senior Homes Best Senior Living blog (which I was also nominated for last year) you can vote ONE TIME through FACEBOOK and once through GOOGLE+. I'm not sure when the voting ends so do it soon!
"Had a Dad" Alzheimer's Blog http://alzheimersdad.blogspot.com
(c) Gevera Bert Piedmont })i({
Thank you for visiting! (Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog)
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - January 23, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
please vote for this blog!
You can vote once a day, until February 15.
Healthline
"Had a Dad" Alzheimer's Blog http://alzheimersdad.blogspot.com
(c) Gevera Bert Piedmont })i({
Thank you for visiting! (Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog)
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - January 8, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
5 years gone, and Alzheimer's Aunt strikes again
This week was the 5 year anniversary of my dad's death. He's been gone longer than he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I'm not really any sadder than usual, except when I re-watched the episode of Walking Dead where Maggie tells her dad (who has been bitten by a zombie, and his leg cut off to try to save him) that it's okay for him to die. The specifics of the speech, of course, weren't equal to the one I gave my dad, but it was 5 years ago to the day that I gave "it's okay to go" talk to my dad, and there I was watching it on TV. I did cry, I admit. I posted about it on Facebook and one of my ...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - December 1, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Aunt in Limbo
Finally one of Alzheimer's Aunt's (AA) children took her to a doctor. Not a competent doctor, not a geriatric doctor, not any kind of specialist, but an old quack whom my mom hates and believes contributed to the death of my dad's aunt (who also had dementia/Alzheimer's). This guy is old, he is incompetent, he doesn't care. And old ladies LOVE him. My grandma used to go to him and my mom made her change to a geriatric doctor who didn't enable her bad behavior. I wanted Alzheimer's Aunt to go to this same geriatric doctor, but NO, she likes Dr Quackenberger and she's old and she's blind and we ...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - October 30, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Aunt gets a new phone & fails to eat dinner
I'm beginning to think that either we were really LUCKY with my dad (remember, he tried to kill my mom AND a doctor) or (Alzheimer's) Aunt (AA) does not have dementia.
Although I had a meeting scheduled last night, I was basically pulled out of it to go to Verizon to get Alzheimer's Aunt a new cell phone. Why? Because she broke the old one in her "frustration" (that word gets thrown around a lot by my cousins) over the voice mail issue.
I'm having a lot of trouble reconstructing the events of yesterday. Apparently Alzheimer's Aunt tried to use Skype on her computer to call one of her children w...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - September 25, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
No matter what (Alzheimer's Aunt) & Alzheimer's day
I've been trying to stay away from the whole Alzheimer's Aunt (AA) situation. It's mostly making me angry, as you can tell from my posts here.
One of my cousins told me something today, though, that I need to share. Alzheimer's Aunt is supposed to be filling out some kind of lifestyle questionnaire for the elder care lawyer, so the lawyer can help guide her into the right paperwork, etc. One of the questions was about being kept alive by machines, being resuscitated, etc. Alzheimer's Aunt stated, emphatically, that
if there is even a percent of a percent of a chance, she is to be revived and ...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - September 21, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Even more Alzheimer's Aunt--or why should I do this again?
Last week I spent half a day at the gym, which I do quite frequently as I still have over 100 lbs to lose. My phone is shut off when this happens, as phones aren't allowed there. I was in the locker room changing and I turned the phone on to find it deluged with voice and text messages from various cousins:
"Go to our mom's NOW she's not answering the phone."
"She called me at work and hung up and now she's not answering."
"Been trying to call her for 4 hours, please hurry over there!"
"Where are you? you need to check on our mom NOW!"
I was SO ANGRY. I immediately texted everyone back saying "I was a...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - September 11, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
Alzheimer's Aunt, the continuing saga
In the past few days, things have continued to go downhill with my aunt. She asked me to come over and cancel the newspaper. But when I called and was leaving a message, she didn't know her cell phone number to have them call back. She gave the house number, which is not working. My cousin went over there to search for paid and/or unpaid bills but was unsuccessful. Alzheimer's Aunt claimed to have seen an ATT bill but she couldn't read it and no one can find it. She can't operate her cell phone. I took a photo of the buttons and blew it up huge in Photoshop, to full page size, but she ca...
Source: Had a Dad Alzheimers Blog - September 3, 2012 Category: Dementia Authors: GBP })i({ Source Type: blogs
