Tag Archives: Dementia

Day 625

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Just go with it– that’s what I keep learning  🙂

It’s 2 : 33 PM on day 625 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, drink  Green Tea by myself,   feed myself All Bran Flakes, a boiled egg  and a banana for breakfast,  publish my Disability of the Day feature, add Shasta’s Kickstarter widget to the sidebar of this blog – Shasta over at Outrageous Fortune wrote a children’s book called Dark & Light: A love story for babies to raise money to pay for her son Malachi’s medical expenses (Malachi is almost two and has Cerebral Palsy) please support Shasta’s Kickstarter campaign –  and exercise my right hand –  I  cut  sausage into smaller pieces using a knife with my right hand today I had the hardest  time picking up the knife with my right hand I wish I had exercised more but stuff came up.

This morning I had planned out my whole day and everything was going great until my grandma had a semi-meltdown – according to doctors she has Dementia so meltdowns are to be expected – now that I look back on it I’m glad it happened because I learned what it truly means to be present while my grandma was in a state of irritation my only goal was to find out what was bothering her and fix it I wasn’t thinking about all the other things I had to do like I usually did when I was doing something.  Have you learned to tear up your schedule and just go with it?

Day 314

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There comes a time in life where you have to decide that there’s a difference between being polite and being a walk-over– that’s what I learning today.

It’s 6: 50 PM on day 314 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself sweet potatoes and plain yoghurt for breakfast, publish my Kid of the Week feature, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet some more about my campaign – still no luck 🙁 – feed myself oranges for dinner brush my teeth once more and continue reading Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer – I started reading it about two weeks ago and truth-be-told if something drastic doesn’t happen with the ending this book won’t be getting a good review from me.

Yesterday we had two visitors who I heard complaining that my grandma wasn’t making sense for the second time in two weeks – first to me last week and then to my parents yesterday – she has what is suspected to be Dementia – and although I am almost always well-behaved this time if I could have walked over there I would have ripped them apart because I have a problem with people who pick on people who don’t have the capacity to defend themselves. Do you have boundaries as to what you will stand for and what you won’t?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 299

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Whoever said every cloud has a silver lining was telling the God’s honest truth – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 7: 43 PM on day 299 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck –read My Kid Will Never Go To College  on Kveller, That was Then, This is Now on Chaing Rainbows and Special needs things that make you go “ARRRGH!”  on Love That Max – reading all three of these blog posts has made me fall in love with blogging all over again because although all three of these people are parents to kids who have “special needs” they all have different perspectives –   feed myself rice and curry for lunch, prepare my Kid of the Week feature for tomorrow, listen to music, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck 🙁 – feed myself avocado on whole-grain bread for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts my grandmother has what appears to be Dementia – my family has taken her to a doctor and he says it’s just part of the aging process – and although I am deeply saddened that her mental health has taken a turn for the worse there is a tiny part of me – I can’t believe I’m actually typing this I feel SO guilty – that is happy that I am no longer the “sick one” in this family before I felt SO claustrophobic because my mother was with me 24/7 – apart from when she was sleeping or at work – now she’s too busy tailing my grandma to care what I’m doing. Do you see the silver lining in your dark cloud?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 297

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A few hours can make a huge difference – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 7: 29 PM on day 297 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself leftovers from last night’s barbecue for breakfast, watch TV, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – listen to music, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck 🙁 – and feed myself rice and curry for dinner.

Last night while listening to music I thought that the best way for me to pray was through my actions but today as I awoke to the overpowering smell of urine – my grandma had urinated on our bedroom floor yesterday morning – I realized that there was nothing I could do to fix her so I prayed Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. for ever and ever. Amen. I am sorry for every bad thing I’ve ever done please help my grandma surely all my good deeds count for something. Has a few hours changed your whole life?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 296

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You teach people how to treat you. – Dr. Phil C. McGraw

It’s 10: 23 PM on day 296 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth,  feed myself toast, mutton sausage and fried tomatoes for breakfast, watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, do some research on Dementia – it breaks my heart to see my granny becoming less and less of herself and unfortunately it seems that all I can do is sit back and watch because the treatment options for Dementia are very limited 🙁 – read two of the most recent post on Love That Max and Top 9 why you should blog on The Nicky Blog  – all the blog posts I read were very good but since I’d never read Nicky’s blog before naturally I was more excited to read that and the fact that I could attest to the 9 reasons why you should blog made it all the better 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – yesterday evening Tana (@woveneye3) made a PayPal donation which I will donate to my campaign on her behalf ASAP and Bonnie (@bonnie67) made two more donations – you guys are AWESOME thank you SO much for your support 🙂 – play host to my extended family who came over for dinner – my aunt almost ended up in tears when my father said grandma didn’t remember the names of her girl children because they didn’t take of her my father didn’t mean anything by it but I saw my aunt’s face when he said that and she was REALLY hurt 🙁 – and brush my teeth once more.

Last night after we came back from dinner at my uncle’s a community member of ours – let’s call him M – called and said he would be coming to our house in ten minutes to borrow our GPS and immediately my dad said with urgency to no one in particular M is coming take Nisha to the other room and in that moment instead of feel less than and going to my room like I usually did I said rather nonchalantly what’s wrong if I’m here to which he responded oh no nothing I just thought you wanted to pee which I did not believe for a second but for the sake of keeping the peace I let it go and asked my mother to help me in the bathroom. Have you taught people to treat you badly?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 291

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Mental illness is a family disease– that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 9: 35 PM on day 291 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, – feed myself  an egg sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – help make 40 sandwiches as part of Virginia’s Sandwich Run – I am SO proud of myself 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, prepare my Kid of the Week feature for Sunday and brush my teeth once more.

As you know my grandma and I are very close and in honour of the person she used to be I am going to share with you the symptoms of “her” disease in the hopes that it will help you and your family. Take a look:

The Signs of Dementia through All Three Phases

Early

  • Word-finding difficulty – May be able to compensate by using synonyms or defining the word
  • Forgetting names, appointments, or whether or not the person has done something; losing things
  • Difficulty performing familiar tasks – Driving, cooking a meal, household chores, managing personal finances
  • Personality changes (for example, sociable person becomes withdrawn or a quiet person is coarse and silly)
  • Uncharacteristic behaviour
  • Mood swings, often with brief periods of anger or rage
  • Poor judgment
  • Behaviour disorders – Paranoia and suspiciousness
  • Decline in level of functioning but able to follow established routines at home
  • Confusion, disorientation in unfamiliar surroundings – May wander, trying to return to familiar surroundings

Intermediate

  • Worsening of symptoms seen in early dementia, with less ability to compensate
  • Unable to carry out activities of daily living (eg, bathing, dressing, grooming, feeding, using the toilet) without help
  • Disrupted sleep (often napping in the daytime, up at night)
  • Unable to learn new information
  • Increasing disorientation and confusion even in familiar surroundings
  • Greater risk of falls and accidents due to poor judgment and confusion
    Behaviour disorders – Paranoid delusions, aggressiveness, agitation, inappropriate sexual behaviour
  • Hallucinations
  • Confabulation (believing the person has done or experienced things that never happened)
  • Inattention, poor concentration, loss of interest in the outside world
  • Abnormal moods (anxiety, depression)

Severe

  • Worsening of symptoms seen in early and intermediate dementia
  • Complete dependence on others for activities of daily living
  • May be unable to walk or move from place to place unassisted
  • Impairment of other movements such as swallowing – Increases risk of malnutrition, choking, and aspiration (inhaling foods and beverages, saliva, or mucus into lungs)
  • Complete loss of short- and long-term memory – May be unable to recognize even close relatives and friends

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!