A Collection of Short Stories and Essays............All rights reserved
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Dementia Up Front
By kiki
There is nothing more horrible than watching loved ones as they suffer from dementia day in and day out. The disease will rob its victims of their dignity and self-pride, as they no longer care about their personal hygiene or their appearance.
They are no longer the person you had known for decades; yes, they may still be around you, and you may see them every day, but you are just seeing the shell of the person you once knew because dementia has taken that person's mind and soul away and just left a body masquerading as your loved one. And it's hard for non-medical persons to understand what the victim does or won't do.
Seeing a once robust individual revert back to babyhood breaks one's heart. One of the hard things for the victim's loved ones is seeing them suffer as they go through hell and not being able to do anything about it. That feeling of helplessness can ruin relationships or, worse, kill you.
The one thing not to do is try to make the victim remember things as his memory is gone, and he will never get it back.
Sunday, January 21, 2024
Parkinson's Disease .
Parkinson's Disease.
By kiki: Parkinson's Patient
Parkinson's is a very challenging disease, one that robber you of voice and body muscles. With the loss of voice, you have difficulty communicating with loved ones. You get frustrated because they can't understand you, and they get frustrated because they can't understand your baby talk. Soon, nerves get raw, to the point that causes most to throw their hands up in the air; it's really kind of comical because we all look like the cops have their guns pointed at us. With muscle loss, you slow down so that a Tortuga (turtle) would be a 10 to 1 favorite to beat you in a foot race. And you're always in danger of falling down, so to be safe from that, you use a walker and hope that the walker is in a good mood and not out to get your ass. The hard part for me is staying positive and maintaining my sense of humor - And there are very few days where you can say, "Today was a good day for me."
A word to those who have loved ones who are struggling with Parkinson's: at the present time, there is no cure for the disease, so your loved one will never be the same person he was. You can't change that, but you can change how you react.