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By Bill October 13th, 2011
Final Crossing
Recently I have been a bit out of sorts. I am tired, irritable, and grumpy. I didn’t know why until I found myself thinking about Frank after an unusually frustrating time in traffic. I am still dealing with feelings about years of caregiving for a man who died despite all our efforts.
My wife Carol’s father Frank died 15 months ago after living in Denver for two years with Carol and me as his caregivers. Prior to the move to Denver we were long distance caregivers with frequent visits to Florida. We had a support system for him in Florida, a nice assisted living facility, a Geriatric Case Manager, and an old friend we hired to take him on errands and outings.
He decided on his own to move to Denver. …
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By Carol September 18th, 2011
The folks at Online Degree love to research. Recently their top staff writer Anna Miller contacted us with some research they have done on well known Alzheimer’s disease patients. We thought we’d share it with you. My skills are not advanced enough to correct some of the formatting problems resulting from my copy and paste approach, but if you want to see the original work, click the following link:
10 Famous People Who Battled Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is a tragic condition that steals the mental abilities of its victims, keeping them from recognizing things and people they once loved and isolating them in their own world. Researchers have been trying to figure out the mysterious disease for years, but so far, there is no cure. More than 5 million Americans have the …
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By Bill September 1st, 2011
I am writing fairly brief posts because I am a bit busy caregiving. My wife Carol is recovering nicely from surgery and her son Steve will have surgery Friday. I am caregiver for both.
This story ran in Sunday’s Denver Post newspaper. It is a story about the tragedy of Alzheimer’s and the enduring magic of love. Do read it all. I would insert it here, but copyright laws prevent my doing so.
Alzheimer's
The story is one of someone slowly being robbed of her mind, and her husband’s witness to her decline. She always recognized him, and some elements of her personality stayed with her. This is similar to what happened to Frank and Audrey, Carol’s parents. Frank had significant memory loss, but his personality was intact until he died of other …
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By Bill July 7th, 2011
Last week Carol and I were on our way to a talk on caregiving for windows. We have an older house with steel casement windows that need repair, painting, and weatherproofing. Most window experts cringe at the thought of approaching a steel casement window. So we were glad to learn that this expert would attempt to address the issue.
On the way, we were on a one way street with a 30 MPH speed limit. We were going 35, and traffic was roaring past us. As we approached a busy cross street, we heard a loud thunk in front of us. Several bystanders ran to help, as it was apparent there were injuries. We picked our way through the debris (lots of books) and went on.
I was struck that in an instant on …
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By Carol July 3rd, 2011
Here it is–another 4th of July and Dad has been gone more than one full year. We had our quiet remembrance of his passing on Friday. I decided to re-post a piece from last year because it still says it best.
Dad didn’t quite make it to the Fourth of July, but “independence” was his rallying cry. Maintaining his independence was his first concern when he moved to Denver two years ago. Assisted living enabled him to secure the level of independence that he craved. He had his own apartment there, and that became home to him. He made the choice to engage hospice care only when he was assured that he could preserve his independence by remaining in his home.
In the final week of his 91years my father was still …
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