It has been awhile since I updated our journey.  We have had ups and downs along this pathway.  We are now nearing the 2nd anniversary of the diagnois and we can see the decline.  My mom and dad have been married for 63 years and she is beginning to morph her daddy and husband into the same person.  I think it may be because we call him daddy and then she does too but she has lost the ability to distinguish that it is not her daddy but actually her husband.  I have tried to talk about him as 'Billy' but that is a hard habit to break...for 60+ years I have been calling him daddy.  She recently has been concerned about her mom & dad (who have been dead since the 80's)...she thinks they haven't come home for the evening and she is worried about them.  We have had two long nights where she has asked us why didn't you tell me they died....why did you not let me go to the funeral.  She thinks we may need to plan another  funeral.  Yet she remembers going to the cemetary and placing the Christmas flowers on their grave just last week.  This disease takes bits and pieces of their memory and leave gaping holes in an event....you remember part but not all.  This foggy abyss is going to get worse...this is an awful disease like I have said before.  Take time, stop and smell the roses with your mom and dad while they still are able. Take them for a 'spin' in the car, go see the Christmas lights, go to a Christmas musical, sing Christmas carols with them, take them out to eat or bring in a home cooked meal they can enjoy.  Life is too precious to NOT spend time with the ones who raised you and molded you into the person you are today.  May your Christmas be merry and blessing to you in the new year.  I love you Mom & Dad.  I Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  NLT

An anniversary of sorts

One year ago this week Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.  It has been a bumpy road but at the latest doctor visit he said she is 'holding her own'.  What does that mean with this horrible disease?  I do not see any BIG changes in the last year.  She has problems getting some words out in a conversation.  We just help her fill in the blanks as best we can.  Losing things is another thing she has to deal with. If this was ALL that was going to happen I would feel excited but, we know this is the tip of the iceberg.  We may have a small hole in the ship now but one day it will become a big gash and the ship will begin to list.   She recently lost a pair of earrings and her hair brush.  She would not let me help her look for them.  I know it must be frustrating not to be able to remember something so simple as to where you put something 30 minutes earlier and it is frustrating to the family that she does not want us to help her.  She dislikes going to the doctor and says she hates to take his 'test'.  The one where you are asked the date, what season it is, where are you etc.  On the way over she kept asking what the day and date was because she knew that would be one of the questions.  When we sat down in the waiting room, she opened her purse and she had a 'cheat sheet' with the day and date written on it.  She looked at it several times before we were called back.  She did get the month and day correct but still could not remember the date once we were back in the exam room.  This is such a cruel disease.  I have recently joined an Alzheimer's study of healthy adults at Emory University in Atlanta.  I had an MRI (my first) and then took a 3 hour memory test.  It is computer generated--it would show an item that looked like snow flakes, the screen would go blank and then in a few seconds up to 2 minutes later you would see the original object and a new object.   You would have to pick the new object.  I got all of those right by remembering something about the shape.  Was the center open, the edge had a feathery apperance, the center had a star shape--things like that.  This seemed easy and I got them all correct.  Then it gets a little harder.  It was similar to the electronic 'Simon' game with out the sound and colors.  Just random blue dots that appeared on the screen and you had to touch the one that was new each time.  It would add one dot at a time--sounds easy right.  But it is not, at one point I had a run of 9 correct before I missed one.  Then on the next set I missed after only two dots.  Talk about feeling like a dummy.  If anyone has the opportunity to join in a study please do so.  Anything we can do to help stop this horrible disease is worth spending a few hours as a participant. 

I recently received a devotional book called Jesus Lives by Sarah Young.  It is 359 pages of pure encouragement.  I just 'flip & dip' in the book, there is no set way to 'read' this book.  Recently, I read about brokeness.  'So stop trying to figure everything out.  Instead, lean on Me, letting your head rest on My chest.  While you rest, I will be watching over you and all that concerns you.'  Thank you Lord for You will walk beside our family in the journey we face.  I love you Mom.