A Silver Lining to Memory Loss
Over the years, I’ve learned several I have specific ways to cope with life’s difficulties. I need to find silver linings in hard situations. I will search for positive aspects, even if its just to fool myself into thinking that the situation isn’t as bad as it appears. Today’s silver lining is that Jim …. Read More
Protecting the Guilty
I’m a huge reader. I need to be prepared so that I can best face what’s coming. Decades ago when I was trying to get pregnant, I’d read 4 pregnancy books, including the scary chapters about what could go wrong, just so I’d know what to watch out for. Once I knew the risks, …. Read More
Convincing Someone They Are Fragile Without Breaking Them
How do you talk to someone about their diminishing memory and abilities– before you have the diagnosis of Dementia? How do you convince then to exercise more caution when they no longer understand the risks of their actions? In Canada, there is a wellness form for doctors to fill out as each patient approaches 80. …. Read More
Different Types of Memory
If Dementia wasn’t so heartbreaking it would be a fascinating thing to watch evolve. We’ve always heard terms like short term memory, long term memory, muscle memory but I’ve always assumed they worked together. Turns out, Dementia illustrates how independent these things are from one another. This is perhaps most evident when I watch …. Read More
Medication Roulette
One of the big things I worried about was Jim being alone all day with easy access to his medications. He wasn’t scheduled to take medications during the day but with the way his memory was fading, I’d started to worry that he may get disoriented and start taking them anyway. I was beginning …. Read More
Regular Jim vs Dementia Jim
I’ve decided to follow others and separate my husband into two people. You’ll often hear people who have loved ones with Dementia say, “Oh, that’s just the Dementia talking.” While I’ve understood the concept, I didn’t really understand it until my normally intelligent, knowledgeable and resourceful husband started resembling a simpleton. I’ve named this new …. Read More
GPS Apps
Jim worked in a high email, heavily dead-lined position. Even now, years after he retired, he’s still attached to his phone as is his life depends on it. Which has it’s good and bad points. It keeps him engaged. He’s found a video stream that plays old school music and he spends a lot …. Read More
The Diagnosis – Part 1 of Many More Than I Thought There Would Be
I want to be able to tell you that getting a Dementia diagnosis is fast and easy. Part of it is, and then there is a long process of hurry up and wait. We’re in Canada so our health system is both a blessing (free) and a curse (slow). Jim ‘presents’ really well so …. Read More
Traveling with Someone with Undiagnosed Dementia
Jim was well into Stage 4 of Dementia when we flew across the country to spend Thanksgiving with my family (October, 2017). We’d already been to see Jim’s family up north early that summer so I wasn’t expecting to have any issues. Apparently, his dependence on routines and familiar surroundings disguised his decline in the …. Read More
In the Beginning
We’ve been very lucky in that the progression of Jim’s decline has been slow and steady. With only a few little hills and valleys to keep me on my toes. We’d go weeks without incident and then we have three or four days where his memory seemed to have powered down but then he’d …. Read More