and another hurrah, Mac was such a happy camper today...sitting on his chair in the lovely hot shower - we washed his hair, and he scrubbed away, and just almost lapped up the hot water as it fell over his head...All this because last week he had a man from the CLSC come to give him a sponge bath. This has to be done in the kitchen as apparently the man does not want to be responsible for Mac going upstairs - as Mac's very shaky on the stairs..
This same man, Ghysline, was supposed to come today - not only to give a sponge bath, but this time he was going to wash his hair - in the kitchen sink, don't ask, we don't have a spray thingie ...So somehow as i said, I got mac in the bathtub safely, and out, and as he said it was heaven in the hot water shower...then I called to cancel the man...Well the man didn't get the message, and just showed up at one oclock today. He will come again next Friday, and depending on my energy, will see what i can do to hear Hurrah hurrah hurrah again before the guy gets here.
In my last blog i spoke about how we laughed so much, well scratch that;soon after he was in bed, all the bogie men came to bother him. Poor Mac jumped and wrestled in his sleep, talked constantly, and at one point yelled and got up..and continued yelling.....so that was not fun, and certanly we didn't have a laugh, but I did manage to quiet him eventually, and got him back to sleep...
This is the problem with the disease, Alzheimer's patients have more and more problems at night...starting with the sundown syndrome where they do not know just where they are. and as we all know the problems grow with time rather than lessen. This month as mentioned before is Alzheimer's month, i attended the Alzheimer's Cafe at the Atwater Library, it was packed as Joe Schwartz spoke on the myths and facts of Alzheimers Disease...didn't know that Alzheimer was a doctor in Germany who discovered the brain pattern of a woman patient of his, and was the first to realize that the brain was gradually changing the way the woman was seeing the world...his research became the focus and the reason for the disease being called Alzheimer's.
Joe Schwartz, mentioned many other facts and myths, but the two main points i brought up were not addressed. i.e. WALKING...i have found that along with the meds that he taked about which prolong the disease but does not cure the disease, Walking - does so much for the brain as well, not only for the speech and the language, but for the body, physically...and since we have stopped walking so much, I have found the change almost dramatic, in speech, in language ability, and in physical i.e. getting up and down from chairs etc. I know this would happen eventually, but the change was rapid after we stopped walking outdoors. I have now started a new regine...a march - I put on great music, and we march around the house, do exercise. i.e. i do, mac, gradually lifts his arms to about his waist level and down once or twice.
Anyway it's fun...The other point Joe did not address, is the fact that much is being discovered about
head injruies and concussions, when I asked him about that he had no comments...
He did say that it is not necessarily true that family members will definitely get Alzheimer's i.e. hereditary - but said that it seems that less educated people are more prone to getting A., on the other hand it is not proved and that maybe with education comes better nutrition, and physical well being ...this in my own estimatiion is really not a factor, as every one I know that has the big A.in my own circle of friends is very well educated but - i do believe the fact as he pointed out we all live longer and therefore it is one of the things out there and so to prolong it, do crossword puzzles, play chess, and speak and study another language...i guess that's why i seem o.k., i've been constantly trying to speak and learn French...ha.
Well hurrah for Mac, and now it's time to wake him up - he's having a snooze, it's afternoon, that's why we have a long blog here...and he and I are going to march around the living room and sing...The Engllish live on St. George's St. the French they live in Cote St. paul, but the irish you can't beat for on old St. Patrick St. Every nation has it's treat in MONTREAL.. bye xx
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