Sunday, December 20, 2009
Grief
My dear, dear friend Joe lost his beloved wife Mary Ann in the wee hours this morning. Her Alzheimer's journey is over, and I'm left with the inevitable slap in the face that that Dave will travel the same painful road as Mary Ann. Damn it!! I hate this fucking disease. :((
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Saturday night fun
Well, my company Christmas party is tonight. When I left for work this morning, Dave was really looking forward to it. I'm a little stressed by it because I'm like a protective mama bear where he's concerned. Not everyone I work with knows that he has Alzheimer's, and a few of the ones that do are a little freaked out by it. Oh well, it will be what it will be, and we're planning on having fun!
We had our 6 month check up with Dr. Strahman on Thursday. We love Dr. Matt (as he calls himself). Dave still has Alzheimer's, (duh!)and has not progressed much since the last visit, but Dr. Matt did say that he's progressed quite a bit from our first visit 18 months ago. I told him about the anger issues, and he's reluctant to prescribe Seroquel at this point. That's fine with me, I think he's over medicated anyway. He advised if it gets out of control to call him, and I will.
Dr. Cingolani (cardiologist) wants to start Dave on coumadin, which is a blood thinner. The problem is, he has to go to the coumadin clinic once a week for 2-3 months so they can watch and adjust the dosage till they get it exactly right. The thought of having to drive to LA every Monday for 2-3 months is not appealing to me in the least. I was talking to Dr. Matt about it, and he agrees with Dr. Cingolani that he needs to be on coumadin because of the A-Fib and aneurysm. He did a little detective work and discovered that our shiny new VA clinic in Oxnard can do the weekly testing, and it's only 5 minutes away. Now that's do-able! See why I love Dr. Matt? :)
Well, not much else going on, it wasn't a terrible week, thank God! That's it from me, I wish you all love, happiness and health! See ya next time in the blogosphere! Love ya!
We had our 6 month check up with Dr. Strahman on Thursday. We love Dr. Matt (as he calls himself). Dave still has Alzheimer's, (duh!)and has not progressed much since the last visit, but Dr. Matt did say that he's progressed quite a bit from our first visit 18 months ago. I told him about the anger issues, and he's reluctant to prescribe Seroquel at this point. That's fine with me, I think he's over medicated anyway. He advised if it gets out of control to call him, and I will.
Dr. Cingolani (cardiologist) wants to start Dave on coumadin, which is a blood thinner. The problem is, he has to go to the coumadin clinic once a week for 2-3 months so they can watch and adjust the dosage till they get it exactly right. The thought of having to drive to LA every Monday for 2-3 months is not appealing to me in the least. I was talking to Dr. Matt about it, and he agrees with Dr. Cingolani that he needs to be on coumadin because of the A-Fib and aneurysm. He did a little detective work and discovered that our shiny new VA clinic in Oxnard can do the weekly testing, and it's only 5 minutes away. Now that's do-able! See why I love Dr. Matt? :)
Well, not much else going on, it wasn't a terrible week, thank God! That's it from me, I wish you all love, happiness and health! See ya next time in the blogosphere! Love ya!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Having a crappy Sunday
Okay, it's only 9:00 in the morning, and I want to go to bed. Not sure what's going on, but on a scale of 1 - 10, Dave's anger level is a solid 7. Every time I open my mouth, he jumps down my throat. I think this is as bad as I've seen it. Since the anger is all directed at me, Matt invited him to go grocery shopping with him so I could catch a break. I've been sitting here crying, and just decided to vent here. I hope nobody reads this, and if they do, I hope you don't care that I'm venting. The anger issue has surfaced from time to time, but never like this. I think I may go out and do a little Christmas shopping alone this afternoon. Matt's taking the kids to the mall to see Santa, and Dave can just have some alone time. He's absolutely not fit ifor human consumption. Gotta go....love you all!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
You asked for it.....
Hi all! Hope this finds you all well. Things have been pretty chaotic in our house the past couple of months. The newest member of our family came roaring in on October 30th. Our beautiful Addiena Elizabeth Vail is finally here, and completely healthy! :) I love that they honored my mom by using her name, Elizabeth, as a middle name! We call her Addie, her name is pronounced Addi-yana and is Celtic meaning beautiful one. She's gorgeous!
Dave continues his daily struggle with this fucking disease. Eating seems to be the big thing he's going through right now. Our dining out days are probably about at their end. He really enjoys going out to dinner, but it is so stressful for me. He does the wackiest things when we're in a restaurant, I swear! Last Thursday we went to Yolanda's - his favorite - and when they brought his soup, it was apparently invisible, because he couldn't see it on the table. When his food came, 2 tacos, beans and rice, he picked up his spoon and started stirring it together. Tacos were flying everywhere! When I asked him why he was doing that, he told me "the soup is hot, I'm trying to cool it down". Then the food kept falling off his fork and landing in his lap. If it weren't so sad, it would probably be funny.
His sleep pattern has changed, also. He used to always get up with me at 5:30, make the coffee while I showered, and then we'd watch the news together. He's sleeping until 8:30 or 9:00 now, so I miss the morning routine. I guess in the grand scheme of things, that's not so bad. He had a visit with his General Practioner last week. Dr. Paulus is no longer his doc, and his new doc is a lady named Dr. Barker. He told her he's never had a lady doctor before, and she told him he'll enjoy his prostate exams much more now. I like that she has a sense of humor. As Dave has trouble with changes, I asked her if she was planning to stick around for awhile, and she assured me she wasn't going anywhere. She spent quite a bit of time with us, asked lots of questions so she could get to know Dave. She was surprised that he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's because of his age. I told her of how many people in my support group have husbands in their 50's and 60's who've been diagnosed. My friend Lynne's husband Ian is only 51!!!
We have a nuerology appointment next Thursday in the Valley, and I'm going to talk to Dr. Strahman about the anit-depressant and Namenda he's taking. I'd like to maybe get him off both of these if it's at all possible. I really struggle with the amount of meds he takes. I get the ones he takes for health issues (his heart, blood pressure and cholesterol) but these other 2 don't make sense to me. He seems over-medicated to me most of the time, and I really think it's the anti-depressant. He has Alzheimer's at age 64 for Chrissakes! Who wouldn't be depressed? I'll let you know what happens with that. His confussion has really escalated in the past several months, and it's frustrating for him. He can't remember what day, month or year it is, and last week Jimmy Carter was President. Holy Crap!
Well, that's about all the time I have for blogging today. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see ya all in the blogosphere! I wish you all love, health and happiness!
Dave continues his daily struggle with this fucking disease. Eating seems to be the big thing he's going through right now. Our dining out days are probably about at their end. He really enjoys going out to dinner, but it is so stressful for me. He does the wackiest things when we're in a restaurant, I swear! Last Thursday we went to Yolanda's - his favorite - and when they brought his soup, it was apparently invisible, because he couldn't see it on the table. When his food came, 2 tacos, beans and rice, he picked up his spoon and started stirring it together. Tacos were flying everywhere! When I asked him why he was doing that, he told me "the soup is hot, I'm trying to cool it down". Then the food kept falling off his fork and landing in his lap. If it weren't so sad, it would probably be funny.
His sleep pattern has changed, also. He used to always get up with me at 5:30, make the coffee while I showered, and then we'd watch the news together. He's sleeping until 8:30 or 9:00 now, so I miss the morning routine. I guess in the grand scheme of things, that's not so bad. He had a visit with his General Practioner last week. Dr. Paulus is no longer his doc, and his new doc is a lady named Dr. Barker. He told her he's never had a lady doctor before, and she told him he'll enjoy his prostate exams much more now. I like that she has a sense of humor. As Dave has trouble with changes, I asked her if she was planning to stick around for awhile, and she assured me she wasn't going anywhere. She spent quite a bit of time with us, asked lots of questions so she could get to know Dave. She was surprised that he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's because of his age. I told her of how many people in my support group have husbands in their 50's and 60's who've been diagnosed. My friend Lynne's husband Ian is only 51!!!
We have a nuerology appointment next Thursday in the Valley, and I'm going to talk to Dr. Strahman about the anit-depressant and Namenda he's taking. I'd like to maybe get him off both of these if it's at all possible. I really struggle with the amount of meds he takes. I get the ones he takes for health issues (his heart, blood pressure and cholesterol) but these other 2 don't make sense to me. He seems over-medicated to me most of the time, and I really think it's the anti-depressant. He has Alzheimer's at age 64 for Chrissakes! Who wouldn't be depressed? I'll let you know what happens with that. His confussion has really escalated in the past several months, and it's frustrating for him. He can't remember what day, month or year it is, and last week Jimmy Carter was President. Holy Crap!
Well, that's about all the time I have for blogging today. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see ya all in the blogosphere! I wish you all love, health and happiness!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Okay, okay
Many of my friends and family have informed me that they miss my blog. This is to let you know hat I will re-start my blog this Saturday, 12/5/09. So much has been going on, I have just not been able to express it, but several things have happened lately so I feel I must. Stay tuned, and watch for a new blog on Saturday. See ya all in the blogosphere! Love you all!
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