Suspicion reigns

Suspicion and rigidity are the highlights today. I am still persona non grata; I have come to realize that my feminine wiles were a huge part of managing R. Without them I have tried using my sparkling personality, but he doesn’t think I’m all that, so now I’m playing relaxing meditation music and have essential …

Strangers in the night

Imagine a stranger walking into your bedroom, directing you in a foreign language and then trying to pull you into the bathroom whilst slipping off your watch. You probably would be a little freaked out. One of the tips the Alzheimer’s Association gives is to meet your loved one in their reality. I have become …

Auditory hallucinations

Auditory hallucinations are a thing apparently. I have noticed of late R answering questions to some imaginary person. “Brown and white” “Oh yah yah yah” “I saw, OK Ill tell you there” He speaks clearly with no hesitation. When I pose a question, he will say “huh” and then he is usually quiet or will …

I need my Mom

I called my Aunty Yvonne in London this morning. She is my Mom’s twin sister and if you had met my Mom once or twice you could easily mistake Yvonne for Thelma. She has two sons and so I have always been her “daughter” and we have always been close. When I saw her lovely …

Winner, winner!

A toddler will fling himself on the floor to demand attention. When you are 6’1” and 220 lbs, your needs are more complex, and thus the strategies to have them met should be more refined. For example, if your sulky, selfish wife sends you to your desk, with a Xanax that you know she slipped you and an admonition that you should leave her alone for her 2 hour class, then clearly you must ensure that your desire to sip lattes in the sun wins over hers to work. To show her how serious you are, you could get down a fancy bicycle from the garage rafters and wiggle your bum at the ring camera, as you take off down the street. After that, you sip your latte and gleefully rub your hands together (in your imagination, of course)

Speeding up

  Feel like we are speeding up Each day is marked by another loss – yesterday I couldn’t get him to lie backwards in the bath to rinse his hair- he just couldn’t understand what I wanted Today he’s wearing two pairs of undies, one pair of jeans with two belts Two tees one inside …

5 year anniversary celebration — Happy Valentine’s Day

 

We have made it 5 years in our dance with the devil that is Alzheimers. Five years since our lives were torn apart and everything we knew collapsed. There are so many shadow gifts, the most precious of all being time. We have had time to adjust, to learn and to grow. My sister in law once said that she would only rest when she knew that if something happened to her, that her daughter would be OK. I don’t believe we would have reached that point without this diagnosis. Ben, Jake and I will all be OK without the rock that was Rob. We will walk him home with dignity and grace and then we will be OK. Devastated, sad, gutted, distraught, but OK. In honor of our journey and perhaps as a roadmap for others passing this way, I have created this blog. Today the Alzheimer’s association, who has supported us tremendously, has released a Valentine story on our journey on their blog, so call this a blog within a blog!  here