The decision is made. Now comes all the second guessing and self-doubt and the.....
I decided that the time has come for my husband to be moved to a nursing home. This is one of the hardest things that I have had to do since his stroke Jan 2, 2005. I have fought hard to keep him home and give him the best life I could. However, his vascular dementia is progressing and people are getting hurt. I guess I have pushed myself to add this to a blog just in case someone else reaches this point
The pain is so intense but when you call the Dr. you are told to try taking an anti-depressant. Two days before, you sat in her office and agreed that your symptoms are not caused by depression. Now on the phone her assistant is giving you the phone number of a psychiatrist. Great! You
A Big Merry Christmas to everyone. As we approach the 5th annaversary of Dick's stroke, I am so thankful for the successes we have had.
Dick has done well enough for me to venture taking a trip with him. We are spending this holiday season on the beach in Alabama. We left all the snow behind and are enjoying our white (sand) Christmas were it is warmer. It is a bit of a victory celebration. Even this summer I did not believe I would be able to take Dick on a vacation again. However,
Today is my birthday. For the past few years it was common that no one remembered my birthdays. Certainly not Dick. This year was different. I guess because of Facebook so many friends were able to share a Birthday note. It was a small thing but I appreciated it. My youngest came up first thing with a gift of a Sweeny Todd movie. The older girls tried to be the first to congratulate there old lady by calling just as the clock past midnight. Nothing big nothing showy but somehow just havin
It has been a three week miracle! For the past three weeks Dick has shown no signs of dementia. How is that possible unless it is a miracle? It has been a time of joy for us both. A time I never expected. His mind has been clearer than it has been in years and his physical improvements are beyond anything he has had since his original strokes four years ago.
He has started to become a bit less cheerful than he was at the beginning of this miracle but I will allow him that since I am u
For some odd reason I find it difficult these days to organize my thoughts well enough to put them in writing. But, since my last blog was so negative, I wanted to update it with a portrait of what our new
2nd part of blog posted earlier
As I grew stronger I realized what a horrid place Dick was in. In the original wing where he spent most of his time there, they did not understand his dementia. They would get aggressive with him and he in turn became aggressive. They took his cane away
I have been asked to share what I have gone through since I last blogged last fall. In the hope that it will encourage another caregiver or survivor I will attempt to do so but it is a lot to put in one blog I have broken into to blogs but it is still a long tale to tell.
I was found last whining in my blogs last fall as the task of caring for my husband became an increasingly greater burden. His first strokes were 2 January 2005. He improved slowly, yet steadily for the first couple years.
This past month has been full of challenges. The greatest problem has been my back. The pain was so debilitating that I ended up in the ER one evening. An MRI was done which revealed another health problem that I was unaware of. In the meanwhile I continue my quest with the VA to get more help for my husband. This time, there some possible results.
Yesterday he was evaluated for respite care in the
My dear aunt had a stroke just a week and a half ago. It has left her pretty much a lump in bed with tubes hanging out of her. She lives about 800 miles from me so there is no way that I can go to see her because I am needed here with my own stroke survivor. I feel so frustrated and helpless so far apart. Long distance communication means I only get brief reports on a periodic basis.
My uncle was unhappy about a decision that I made in my life several years and had cut me off from commu
Summertime is when we often expect to get a bit of a break from the normal busy routine of life. Not so for us this year. While my daughters are usually gone for half the summer, one decided to stay home which has meant that we have become sleepover central and teenage transit authority. You can imagine then how I was looking forward to a restful vacation.
We have discovered the perfect vacation spot for our family where we can all find entertainment to fit our abilities. It is a Christ
We have been through some tough months and when things are hard you feel like they will never end. But hard times do make even the slightest positive improvements so fulfilling and wonderful. My husband is still dealing with bowel blockage but we have gotten to the new routine stage and the pain he still has is under control with medication. So we are sleeping better the last couple weeks. The last doctor
For those who only like to read upbeat happy blogs, you may as well stop reading right now. For this will not be an everything is rosy blog but rather a cry of anguish from a broken heart. Stroke sucks. It robs a couple of life as they knew it and turns the relationship on end. But with stroke somehow there is always hope. There is always room for improvement. There is always a new life to be built. But when vascular dementia enters the picture it seems that even hope is taken from you.
There are times when I can come up with a dozen or so topics to blog about. Today I realize that all that is in my mind is really old stuff revisited. This is really encouraging though because now that I think about it, if I have handled it before, I can handle it again. Right?!
I am still trying to understand which end is up most days. We had settled into a somewhat
Living with vascular dementia can be like living in a dessert. You can feel lonely, parched, weak, confused, lost and even be tempted to give up. But just when you think that you will not survive you stumble upon and oasis. There you can refuel and rest for a time before continuing your journey. Sunday we stopped by an oasis in dessert dementia.
Actually we had found the oasis on Saturday night. My husband seemed to be pain free and ready for small outing so we stopped by Dairy Queen t
Usually I have a theme or subject in mind when I sit down to blog. If there is any for this blog it must be chaos. For that is the condition of my mind these days. Each day I say this is the one that I will get it all pulled together, organized and decisions made. It hasn
Anyone who knows me or has read my blogs will know that things have been difficult since the end of February. Few people, if any know the whole picture. That is the nature often of any caregiver
I just got beat up, jumped on, kicked and left for dead. At least that is what it feels like. A well meaning friend called this morning because she had heard my husband was in the ER yesterday. Though I have known her a very short time, I have appreciated some of the support she has shown. In fact last week she ran to the store for me when my husband was too sick for me to leave him. However, this morning she was like a steam roller. She told me what to do as far as doctors and when I trie
I love Tuesdays. Wednesdays are good too because we get to go as a family for a small group study. But Tuesdays I go alone. Alone! What a rare treat for someone who has five children and now a spouse with vascular dementia. Even the cat stands outside the bathroom door and wants my attention.
I always have a great time just being with my
