My husband won't do the puzzles nor read. He just sits and watches tv. We
had our first appt with the attorney and that was rough. We go back on the
9th to sign the durable power of attorney. Right now we are having "talks"
about the wording on the medical directive. I went thru this with my mother
years ago. If you don't say something else then whatever doctor is around is
the one that decides just when the person is no longer able to make
decisions. That is not acceptable to me :::sigh:::
I agree, this is not how I thought my life would be at 55

Linda Jean

<---holding out hands ;-)

Linda Jean

Ronny:
You're welcome and I'm just glad I could help both you and Tim some. :-)

And BTW,I love sharing my everyday life with other people. :-) I love it
so much that some people in some groups get upset at me for doing that!

few;but at times I can also feel sorry for them. I'm just glad I'm not
that negative and hateful! Enough problems come our way in life without
us adding that on to it!

Yeah,way earlier this year I didn't realize that little female cat was
going to have kittens until just a few days before she did! I'm not even
sure when I first realized she was a female and not a male?! But then
the little thing started getting real fat and I though,Ah oh! LoL

Then she had her 4 kittens in that old dog house;but that's where my two
hens had been laying their eggs! :-) Right now I'm too sleepy headed to
remember who had their babies first?! But it was so interesting to see
around 14 chicks,Mama Hen,4 kittens and Mama Cat all in the same small
doghouse! :-) Mama Cat stayed a few days before she moved her kittens.
And I have a notion the two got along just fine because they were both
new mamas. :-)

Got to get back to my middle bedroom in a bit. If I can keep going I may
actually finish it up today! :-) LoL Don't like that much.

See you later. :-)
Ronny

---------
Introduction
Group: alt.support.alzheimers Date: Sat, Nov 12, 2005, 12:27am (CST-2)
From: jarrett@example.net (karen)
I would like to introduce myself to one and all. My name is Karen and my
husband, Tim (age 55) was diagnosed with dementia last month. In
December 2000 Tim was diagnosed with a brain tumor, had surgery where it
was discovered he had metastases of Small Cell Lung Cancer to the brain.
He was Stage IV. After the surgery he received whole brain radiation,
stereotactic radiation, chest radiation and chemo. We were told at the
time that the damage from the combo of surgery and radiation would cause
short term memory and vocabulary difficulties but that the brain could
retrain other areas to lessen the effects. That proved to be correct and
for these last 4 years we've continued on. Early September Tim had a
chance to stop in and visit an aunt that he doesn't see regularly and a
couple of weeks later when I had a chance to drop in for a quick visit -
well, she nailed me to the wall for an explanation of some behaviors she
had seen. What an eye-opener for me!
        After taking a week to really pay attention and
weigh his behaviors in consideration of her "I see people around here
behaving like that and they all have dementia." it was obvious something
was wrong. I finally got my nerve together and talked to Tim about it
and suggested he consider what I was seeing - gave him time to absorb
what I had said. A week later we sat down and made up a list of things
he had been trying to hide and what I had seen, made a Dr. appointment
and had CT Scans and MRI tests done. Back to the oncologist who, while
able to tell us what had caused the damage, wasn't able to direct us
where to go next. The oncologist called our Dr. and we were back to him.
Tim's been given Aricept 5 mg. now to be increased to 10 mg. in Dec.
Between no longer having to hide symptoms, the medication and actively
working on reading and math puzzles (he's a very proactive person) I'm
seeing improvements. I just about drove off the road last night when he
in normal conversation used the word "scenario" in context and without
having to search it. In my world right now scenario = miracle. LOL
alt.support.cancer helped me interpret treatments and statistics for
myself and family/friends in the past. I was relieved when I found
alt.support.alzheimers. I've read thousands of posts here and am
comforted by the humor, common sense, compassion and coping strategies
you all share so freely.
Karen