me, my dad and dementia #20 – a swollen and bruised ankle
#20 – a swollen and bruised ankleAAGH! We have no idea how it happened but I’m gonna guess sometime on Wednesday since he only showed it to us on Thursday. It had many wild colors to start and those have dissipated a fair bit. The swelling has gone down but it is not totally gone. […]
me, my dad and dementia #19 – raising an 87-year old
Well the trip was lovely. Not exactly totally relaxing but still really really lovely. We’ve discovered that if we simply spend every waking moment with my Dad while on our holidays, it goes much better. Last summer we tried to take some time to ourselves while in Canmore and that didn’t work so well….Dad felt […]
me, my dad and dementian #18 – odds and ends
We’re about to head out to the magical island so I’ll just give you a quick update. Yes, he LOVED the show on Saturday night. Me too! HAH He is maintaining happy thoughts for the most part. Interesting side note….about a week ago, he was full out angry that we had “taken his pencil sharpener […]
me, my dad and dementia #17 – my fair lady
One of my Dad’s top 10 songs lives within the musical My Fair Lady. You will never guess….well, maybe you will…. On The Street Where You Live. The movie version was on TV this past weekend. I sent my husband down to quickly tell my Dad and help him find the right channel. When my […]
me, my dad and dementia #16 – anti-depressants, trump, and an island
Now that’s a mouthful! Dad confessed to having “blue” moments throughout his life and even wondered where that might have come from….so…yeah I shall refer you back to witnessing war atrocities and losing his mother at a young age. I remembered my daughter suggesting anti-depressants when my Dad was at his worst a few weeks […]
me, my dad and dementia #15 – raise your voice
#15 – raise your voiceIn the lingo of let’s say oh….choir(!)….this post is about making your voice heard and making sure we look after each other properly as we age. When we moved my mother from our home to her first long-term care facility many years ago, it was not an easy task and there were […]
me, my dad and dementia #14 – finding your joy, letting go of your expectations
My new approach with my Dad is to keep reminding him that if he had his druthers in life, he would have been a musician. He is coming to grips with the whole idea of not being as good as he once was. And he was holy cow good. I don’t think I’ve ever met […]
me, my dad and dementia #13 – emotions and the brain
My Dad has always had the “January blues” a little and that has led him to again believe he “should” quit the choirs. Yup, he used the word “should”. So we talked. And talked. And talked some more. It was very interesting. He is of course completely aware that he is forgetting and that he […]
me, my dad and dementia #12: hey mikey, he likes it!
A small miracle happened the other day. My father came over to “talk to me about the music for this term”. I was worried but ready to quickly acquiesce and allow him to quit everything. I gave him all the So Noted music about 2 weeks ago and he’s been going over it on a […]
me, my dad and dementia – #11: like a jigsaw puzzle
As we begin a new year and make our resolutions and look for our fresh starts, I look back a little and contemplate my life with my Dad.I have lived in the same house with him over the years (off and on) for almost 50 years of my life. That ain’t nuthin’. It just worked […]