Greetings All,
First of all, you are correct Padraig that I did not understand the extent of Jean's immobility. I surely hope I did not cause offense of any kind in my advice about
the clothing. I know you have continued to be an exceptional caregiver for your wife and that you had probably already heard of alterations that might help in dressing, but on the off chance you had not I decided to give those tips. I admire your valiant and loving efforts to do everything possible to keep Jean with you, despite what others might consider as someone who might as well just be bedridden as you said. Every moment she is with her family and suroundings is another postive day for her. Again, apologies if my advice seemed insensitive in any way.
Lyn, you are sounding stressed and that is worrisome. What you are doing cannot be easy and although you never complain, it is evident that this takes a toll on you, as it would anyone! Please take care of yourself. I don't want to think that you will have to bond again with that IV. You have better friends than that to spend time with!! (When I was undergoing chemotherapy and wore an IV via a pic line for months, I named the IV bag FRED, the same name my daughter gave her IV bag when she was in the hospital as a very little girl with severe e-coli.) FRED may have been someone I had to try to think of as a friend and not an enemy, but losing that particular "friend" was not sorrowful! I love hearing in your "voice" your enthusiasm about
Cait and what she is doing. Your pride is so well deserved; she sounds like a wonderful young lady! Following in her mom's footsteps it appears
Mary, I think of you so often and pray every day that family is giving you a little relief from their interferences that have made things so difficult for you. It is surprising when family chooses not to just let go of grievances of any kind and instead pull together for the collective good of the fmaily member in need. I think I have said this before in a post, but a mantra of sorts that I have used at many times in my life as a mom, wife, ex-wife, daughter and sister is "At the end of every day a family should be able to forgive one another." Oh my, though, there were days, years, months, when I didn't think I would ever be able to do that. I had to, to move on and be able to enjoy my family, as dysfunctional as it is at times. You, however, seem to be having far more interferences in your life than I have had, especially at a time when you need help, not stress, and my hope for you is that they will start realizing what this is doing to their father and to you, and start to back off and act like family.
On a lighter note, I spent the last several days traveling my beautiful state of Oregon participating in 4 different Memory Walks to promote Alzheimer's awareness and to raise funds for research and care. This year I wore a picture of my mom on the back of my shirt, as hundreds of others did of their loved ones lost to AD, and we shared memories, hopes, and then dreams that this disease will gain more and more awareness and subsequent research will give us reason to believe that there will be a way to stop this disease.
My little traveling daughter (all 22 years old and grown up) posted incredible pictures of herself and her traveling companions on their website, and it was reassuring to see her looking so incredibly healthy. It lessened my worries tremendously! It would have been nice had the photos been of them with all with both feet planted on the beach sand instead of hanging from precipices in their climbing gear and smiles, or solodiving off tall cliffs!! One photo, however, was of all of them dressed in their new favorite fashion statement, the one size fits all wrap Thai pants, eating fresh shrimp, smiling, and sitting outside their small tin roofed hut on the beach that has been home for 2 weeks.
Take care, my friends
Linda