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Brooks and Dunn snaps her out of it.
When my DW starts going down the rabbit hole Brooks and Dunn "The Cowboy Rides Away" pulls her back out.
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tragedy
My DH has been dealing with AD since 2015. I had a sibling reunion two weeks ago with 5 sibs and their spouses. My DH is in stage 6 but seemed to enjoy all the chatting and liveliness of us,,69-81!! All meeting here in Huntington Beach, Ca from the midwest. Two weeks later...a tragic accident happened... my sister's…
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What kind of therapist to see as a caregiver?
I really do need therapy to help me as a caregiver. The stress is taking it's toll on my blood pressure, sleep and diet. My therapy now is alcohol, cannabis and trying to golf when I can. The first two only help in the short term and golf can be more of a frustration if I'm not swinging well. Golf is a sport that you need…
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I'm too smart - or so I thought
A few weeks ago I received a call from one of our grandsons, Matt. He sounded very shook up, and told me he was embarrassed by what he did. He was driving, with his phone on the passenger seat, when he got a text. He took his seat belt loose so he could reach the phone, then broadsided another car. He had a broken nose,…
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FTD with hypertension and difficulty swallowing
After 10 months of chasing medical testing, my husband had a PET scan last week and was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He's just 68 yrs old, and is already almost mute. Since the onset of his dementia symptoms, he's had diastolic hypertension. He's never had high blood pressure in the past (runs 3 miles a…
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How Can I be in Shock?
Took DH to his doctor today. Yesterday he had a seizure and for the past month he has been totally incontinent, only saying around 5 words per day, napping often, unsteady on his feet, shakes on the right side, and not too interested in eating. Today, his doctor recommended I contact hospice. I knew this was coming...but…
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Constantly Talking!
My DH is driving me crazy! I work at home and when he isn't sleeping he is constantly talking non-stop! I can't even get on the phone when he is awake because every time I do so, he starts talking! I have to wait until he is asleep to make my calls. Its not like I can leave the room and work somewhere else because he…
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roller coaster of emotions
DH is in memory care and is on Hospice. On a Monday, he had another one of the events where he is drooling and non responsive for several minutes. He also fell. Hospice Dr RXd an Ativan and DH recovered. On Wed my nephew and wife visited after a 4 hr drive here and DH seemed to be ok. Fast forward 4 days and memory care…
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mottling on feet
Today my DH took his final shower. He barely made it to the wheelchair and then he didn't have enough strength to stay in the chair. He slid to the floor. The Hospice PA and I couldn't get him up and had to call 911 nonemergency to get him into the bed. After he got good and warm we noticed the mottling on his feet. We had…
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sleep patterns(1)
My DW falls asleep after supper on the couch and wakes up about 10:00 which is the time that I go to bed. She roams the living room, kitchen and dining room until about 3:00 am. She gets in a lot of mischief like disconnecting electrical items, rearranging kitchen cupboards, and pulling connections on the computer and…
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Income tax write off
My niece's husband is a CPA. For the first time I was able to write off my DH's memory care rent for the 4 and 1/2 mo he was in Memory care in 2022. Making out the long form you can also deduct medical items like Depends, RX's etc. This gave me a much larger federal return.
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This new chapter
Thank you for letting me vent - I am still trying to breath! I have not been on this site for many months and appreciate any tips you may have. My DH passed away almost 7 months ago. After a brief stay in a hospital to try and get his meds stabilized, I brought him home two days before he passed, Thank God for this! I am…
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A surprise bill from medicaid
This is an interesting article about a daughter who was taking care of her mother, who had dementia, at her mother's home and her father ended up with a $226,611 bill from medicaid after the mother died. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/01/1159490515/they-could-lose-the-house-to-medicaid
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My DH is insisting that I rehome my cats!
My DH was diagnosed two years ago with MCI, which has now progressed to moderate levels. He needs helps with almost everything, but does still take care of his ADLs. I am making all of the decisions about the house, getting bills paid, cars serviced, etc. Six months ago he decided that he wanted to move from South Carolina…
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Guiding the Care Journey: Building Dementia Workforce and System Capacity through Care Navigation
Care navigation can help close gaps in dementia care by coordinating medical and social services, partnering with caregivers, and facilitating access to disease education and community-based services. More from @MilkenInstitute here: http://bit.ly/3LGxWQK
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Adjusting well
It has been 10 days since I moved my husband to a new memory care. I talked to the director today and she said she is surprised at how well he has adjusted. I think it is because he has no memory of the past at all and I don’t think he ever realized that he was someplace new. I am surprised at how much better their care…
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Hospital stay leads to new confusion
DH came down with what I call stomach flu Thursday,March 9th. I woke up that morning to a mess in the bathroom sink. Apparently he had gotten sick in the night. He didn't eat anything all day Friday until supper and immediately threw it up. I was up with him most of the night Friday night. He was vomiting and then got…
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DH's condition has improved
After a rough 4 months, DH is finally improving. The subdural hematoma has resolved, the IVC filter is in place to catch blood clots, and we have finally established a care team. The urologist inserted a foley catheter to help my husband's problems emptying his bladder. Since getting the catheter, DH has not had another…
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another new problem?
To catch up. My DH has vascular dementia. In Nov. suddenly stopped walking. Then aspirational pneumonia. He has continually gotten weaker. This was the 2nd shower by Hospice that we didn't think we would get him back into the wheelchair not to mention to the bed from the wheelchair. Now my question is this. He went 3 days…
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God grant me the serenity......
Dear friends, I haven't posted for a while. My husband is still in the early to middle stages of vascular dementia. But there are always new losses. Right now I am trying to deal with refilling one of his prescriptions. DH argues with me every step of the way, "remembers" incorrectly what has happened in the past. Then DH…
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Also starting to help in an association
Hi everybody I read that Ed began to imply in an association, me too ! I think I am not able to help others by speaking with them. It is too difficult to continue to speak about this desease. I wanted to help in another manner. 1 month ago the association we followed since my partner diagnosis (and that helped a lot when I…
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Newbie Intro
Hi all. I knew that I would have to take care of my wife someday but didn't think it would be because of dementia. My wife is 20 years older than I am and as we are about to celebrate 32 years of marriage I get a certain amount of joy in being able to care for her in her hour of need. A little of our backstory. We started…
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Stupid Song
Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself” came on the radio on my way home. It hit a little different. I used to make fun of that song. The Raspberries rocked!
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Advice requested: Insatiable appetite
My DW (79) is somewhere between stages 5-6 of her ALZ. In order to manage her intermittent sleep and anxiety episodes, a couple of months ago her neuropsychologist increased her seroquel intake from 50 mg to 125 mg a day. (She also takes 0.5 mg a day of clonazepam.) This boost has (partly) helped, but caused another…
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Feeling sad(1)
I havent been on for a long time, but Ive been feeling sad and frustrated. My husband is in the 6th stage of Alzheimers and doesnt know who I am to him or how he knows our kids. He has so much trouble trying to tell me anything and usually cant get it out, except to tell me "he wont be around much longer". Not sure how to…
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Donating his clothes as if he’s passed
When he went into memory care I packed his extra clothes away. They were too painful to see every morning in our shared closet. They have sat for 2 1/2 years and I know he has no need for his clothing: ties, shirts, sweaters, pants, hats, scarfs, gloves or sunglasses any longer, even his tailored suit he wore so…
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A lot of frustrations ....
DH does his laundry 2-3 times a week! He washes his clean cloths thinking they are dirty. I liked the fact that he enjoys doing laundry and he feels he has accomplished something, but I feel it’s such a waste of water, gas and electricity. This only adds to our already high bill! He also enjoys grocery shopping but gets…
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VA recovery for nursing home question
Have any of you had spouse in VA nursing home, where you had financial assistance? I know medicaid has a recovery for money used for spouses that have passed. And I'm wondering if VA has a recovery system, especially when financial assistance is used.
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Anger
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Husbands as caregivers
I swap emails with another man whose wife also has Alzheimer’s. Here is part of one of the emails that I sent to him. One of the things that makes it more difficult for us to be caregivers for our wives is the fact that we are men. We’re men, we fix things, that’s what men do. When something is broken, we fix it.…