Perhaps if there is one theme to what I have learned about being with someone who has dementia, it is that confidence in what you are doing and not being afraid to take risks is a central key to knowing you are on the “right track.” Over the course of the 3.5 years I’ve been… Continue reading May 2, 2015: Mom and I begin visiting local parks
Category: 5. Facebook Moments 2015
Over the time since Donna returned home I have often mused on what I was going through, positively and negatively so. Here’s some snapshots of these posts, with a more recent reflection on what was happening then, with the addition of time spent together since. These posts are from the first full year of Donna’s Lessons to me at home, for the year 2015.
April/May 2015: 3 separate short posts
These three separate short posts were all just slightly more than a month apart in late April and May, 2015. This time was among the hardest time for me in helping Mom, and at her weakest, as well. I was coming apart, Mom was having trouble standing on her own more so than now or… Continue reading April/May 2015: 3 separate short posts
April 6, 2015: Pep talk to myself about our respective roles
In the transition to being “fully in charge” of my mother, one major advantage we have over many children tying to help struggling parents is that we have been dealing with cerebral issues and my intervention in Mom’s personal space as a matter of necessity since 2005. The adjustment was more problematic when I was… Continue reading April 6, 2015: Pep talk to myself about our respective roles
April 4, 2015: Fidel and Donna– thoughts on aging
Both Donna and I have taken great inspiration from and hold admiration for El Commandante Fidel Castro. In point of fact, Fidel’s health crises starting in 2006 often impacted myself as though he were extended family– and in many ways he still is, posthumously– and also mirrored the declining health of my mother, then my… Continue reading April 4, 2015: Fidel and Donna– thoughts on aging
March 14, 2015: Oranges and Caregiving
I could continue on with this for examples up until today… but if I were to do so, it would finish (so I think) with me handing her the orange and not paying attention to what she did after that. I also note that as Mom settled into her ‘new’ brain these kinds of ‘complications’… Continue reading March 14, 2015: Oranges and Caregiving
January 2, 2015: Mom gets up after I helped her to bed
If there is one major problem caregivers of a loved one with dementia face that nearly all people know about, it’s likely that of midnight wandering. In November prior to this, I was confronted with Mom getting lost in the neighbourhood but two months later I was well into a ‘new normal’ that would include… Continue reading January 2, 2015: Mom gets up after I helped her to bed