Skip to main content

We choose joy and hope over fear!

 We are enjoying a relaxing day at home after a particularly busy few days. Sometimes I think that the emotional exhaustion is harder to deal with than the physical exhaustion. 

I am reading a book called "Where The Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again" by Kimberly Willaims-Paisley. It is the story of Kimberly's mother, Linda's, journey with a neurological illness called primary progressive aphasia. This is a rare type of dementia that attacks swiftly and takes away the speech and thought processes of the victim with a vengeance. The book points out how dementia affects the entire family of the person diagnosed with the disease. 

We don't know for sure what type of dementia that Rich has because he seems to have some symptoms that mimic fronto-temporal dementia, Alzheimer's dementia, and Lewy-Body dementia. Rich's neurologist thinks that he has more than one type. I am trying to read as much as I can about different types of dementia and the experiences that families have as caregivers. I am so grateful to have a supportive family and such a sweet husband who appreciates everything and everyone in his life. I realize that may change as his disease progresses so I am relishing the time that we have in this stage of life.

We have about 15 houses being built two blocks from our home. Rich spends hours watching the construction workers going about their jobs, he watches cranes and bulldozers moving materials and dirt, and he picks up hundreds of nails dropped by the workers. He has become so familiar to the men working that one of them asked if he could put his ladder in our garage overnight so that it didn't get stolen on the jobsite. That evening, Becca and Brent were puzzled to find a strange ladder hanging out in our garage. Becca called the Middleton police and told them that we had a ladder that didn't belong to us and asked if anyone had reported missing one. She texted me the next day from work and asked if I knew where it came from (I did not). I mentioned it to Rich and he said, "Oh, one of the construction workers came and picked it up this morning. He just asked me to keep it overnight!" Mystery solved!  Rich is always generous - he justs forgets to tell us about it!

Today Rich's brother, Derrick is flying in from look Seattle for the weekend. We will have some special time with all of our girls and the brothers will have some time just for the two of them. Tomorrow they are going out to breakfast and then to the Warhawk Air Museum. This is such a gift for Rich and for me, as well. I love seeing the brothers laugh and joke together. It is an easy relationship for Rich because Derrick is so dear to him and their interactions are comfortable and familiar! There is joy in our journey through dementia! Yes, it is interspersed with loneliness and uncertainty but hope and joy are always just around the corner! Hang on for the ride! 

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
Psalm 5:11
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Christmas Engagement Story

December 21 was my sister, Gail, and brother-in-law, Paul's, 55th anniversary! What a a wonderful milestone and an example of commitment to each other. Thinking of their day so long ago (I was a 12 year old bridesmaid at their beautiful Christmas wedding), reminded me of my engagement story. I decided to post our story on the blog about our continued journey together. At the time of our engagement both Rich and I taught school in Denver at Silver State Christian School. Although Rich taught junior high and I taught 1st grade, we came together for staff meetings each week. We both worked with the junior high youth group at church and got to know each other through ski trips and other youth activities. We started to date in 1975 right after my Christmas vacation trip back home to Minnesota - but that is another story! Rich and I became engaged 43 years ago on Christmas Eve. We were in Minnesota for Christmas with my family (the first time everyone would meet my boyfriend) in 1977 and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vacation and COVID-19

It is a little difficult to write about our time in McCall objectively because I tend to have rose colored glasses about vacations in general and McCall in particular. However, the week of Family Camp was a bit challenging for Rich because he was away from his regular routines at home. He was surrounded by people each day and although they were a bit familiar, he couldn't remember their names or how he knew them. Our assistant pastor, Bobby Truax, was at our breakfast table one morning and Rich whispered to me, "What is his name?" Bobby overheard the question and without skipping a beat said, "Hi Rich! My name is Bobby." Over and over throughout the week, the men at camp spent time talking to Rich (and often answering the same questions numerous times) and making him feel a part of conversations. I am so appreciative! We played games with several different groups and every person was patient with Rich when he didn't understand the rules or felt overwhelmed b...
4 comments
Read more

Laughter and Pets

I told Rich today that I was blogging about our journey with dementia. I felt that it was only fair that I let him know that I was making this public. He was characteristically upbeat and sweet. He said that he thought it was wonderful that I was putting down my thoughts and chronicling the road that we are walking together. He said that he wanted to use his journey to bring glory to God and point others to the Prince of Peace!  In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that I lost my glasses this morning. It is humbling to realize that I needed Rich's help to find them (and he did find them)! Perhaps we both need a pair of back-up glasses! 😆 We have learned to laugh at many things that are part of our lives now. Rich's meds evidently give him lots of air bubbles and he belches long and loud (and dare I say - proud)!! I have to admit that the many noises that he emits is a bit irritating at times but usually we bust up and LAUGH! What can you do?  Rich's favorite sh...
4 comments
Read more