Having realistic and still beautiful goals makes achieving them possible and gives the feeling you need most: Purpose. The why in doing something needs it’s own answer– and much like activism, there is no score card but simply your own judgement and the change in your surrounding you can invoke that become your barometer. Meet… Continue reading September 7, 2015: After the Lake
September 7, 2015: Labour Day at the lake
In the first summer I spent with Mom, every activity we would discover worked for both of us was another eureka moment. Perhaps, however, as I needed to slow down my own vibrations to take on the running of this home for us and two cats, there was no greater shot in the can-do arm… Continue reading September 7, 2015: Labour Day at the lake
August 13, 2015: Mom is home now
After nearly two weeks, Mom returned home and was stronger than when she left (which is unusual in our situation, as Mom gets less motivated and more lethargic when she is in a hospital or similar facility– as do most of us). I was able to recharge, we were definitively on a new path and… Continue reading August 13, 2015: Mom is home now
July 31, 2015: Mom has a health crisis
This particular time frame isn’t explicated beyond the immediate moments of terror with Mom and her collapsing condition that particular day, but when I referred to things being better in the prior two months as I wrote this, there were a few things I didn’t get into detail about that were also part of what… Continue reading July 31, 2015: Mom has a health crisis
May 18, 2015: Dangerously close to burning out
This is a good day for me to write the introduction to this post, as I’ve had similar levels of exhaustion lately– and, in a way, now that it’s 2018 I am more susceptible to burnout sneaking up on me, as I’m used to low level burn out as a mainstay constant in my life… Continue reading May 18, 2015: Dangerously close to burning out
May 2, 2015: Mom and I begin visiting local parks
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
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