My Life With Jim

  Jim took a shower after supper on Friday as usual and not long after I heard the spray come one, I felt the thump as much as I heard it. I grabbed my phone and ran into the bathroom to find Jim sheepishly looking up at me, on his knees, leaning on the shower ….  Read More

So, spent the morning at the hospital to get the blood flow in Jim’s feet checked. If we rate the blood flow in his arms a 10, and the blood flow in his ankles a 7 (farther from the heart) then the blood flow in his good foot is a 3 and in his bad ….  Read More

  It seems we have a new player in the dementia game. The subconscious mind. I’m planning to move Jim and I to my hometown in the spring. Jim and I have talked about it, and he’s heard me refer to the move each time we have a doctor’s appointment. Which invariably means we have ….  Read More

  I fear we’re entering a new area of symptoms, this time courtesy of diabetes. Over the past few years, Jim has twitched in his sleep. At first it wasn’t bad. His arms or legs would jerk a few times as he settled into slumber. It’s been growing steadily worse, graduating to full body movements ….  Read More

  I recently made my life easier and left myself saying, “Well, duh yeah.” Four years ago, when Jim first started taking medications, we bought one of those weekly pill containers. We stopped using it after a few days because Jim’s hands shook too much and he ended up dumping the entire case. I kept ….  Read More

  I’ve noticed in the past few weeks Jim has become very clingy. If I leave the room for a few minutes he comes to find me. If I make a noise, eg. dishes clanging together as I make supper, he asks me if I’m okay. He’s also become hyper-vigilant about investigating sounds from outside. ….  Read More

  I’ve noticed that Jim takes extra long in the mornings now to get ready. He is trying to focus on so many little things that he used to do by muscle memory-now he’s confusing himself. He’ll start a task and then question why and how he’s doing it. He’s distracting himself and pulling his ….  Read More

  The biggest issue I’ve had with Jim has been his lack of motivation to do anything that makes him think. He doesn’t like puzzles, he’s never been a reader, he doesn’t like documentaries. He has no interest in learning how things work, he was never a handyman etc. All of the above are activities ….  Read More

  Jim’s birthday was last week and it nearly broke my heart. (I guess I’ll need to get used to having almost everything breaking my heart a little more each time.) There wasn’t a moment of independent recognition of it being his birthday. Once he got settled in the morning, I brought in the cards ….  Read More

    Well, I was wrong. Despite the problems with Jim’s eyes, I’ve always assumed diabetes was the less dangerous of the trio of illnesses that plague Jim. Hypertension = Heart Attack Cholesterol = Heart Attack Diabetes = treatable eye, foot and kidney issues Well, the feet may not be treatable anymore. Over the past ….  Read More