I am so LOVING your posts. Well, today, get to OH home and here is the lovely agency nurse, serious young man who is about to play the accordian. And everyone except one resident (who doesn't like anything) LOVED it. And accordian man has said that when my throat is better (have lost my voice), we can plan a concert with me singing and him accompanying. OH done a lot of singing this morning I gather, very lively, and strangely, so were a lot of the residents. I am developing a theory that somehow, i do not know how, high light and sun robs them of energy. Should be the other way round but hey, nothing is normal in dementia is it? OH gave me a big kiss and have come home singing, well humming, voice won't allow song at moment. I am so grateful to you all for your posts, it's so lovely to have you come and join me.
Please don't throw me away, breaking my promise
- Thread starter kindred
- Start date
Your theory about high light and sun got me thinking and looking back over the past few weeks with mum, I reckon you could be right. It does fit. Dull and raining this morning and she rallies I'm with Carole King - It Might As Well Rain Until September. You are so right - nothing, nothing is normal with this. Well I have to ask; is there no end to your talents? DOM (Destroyer of Moths) and now Songstress. Do you write your own material? Have you an album due for release and if you go tour, might I get discounted tickets? The o2 would be a good gig!!!!!! Looking forward to seeing you on The One Show tonight! Thank you so much for your post. Love and Hugs x
Oh we really do! It brought me to tears - but happy today. Thank you my dear friends @smartieplum , @carolynp, and @kindred for your Love and support which I'm sending back. X
Been busy the past few days with work and family and just catching up. It’s lovely to read everyone’s postings on your thread Kindred. Maybe you need to gargle with paracetamol, or something to revive your voice, was it the Freddie Mercury that did it?
Mum still visits every single day, and I tell her if she wants a day off but is worried about dad I will go in and be with him all afternoon until he’s tucked up in bed but she says what will I do then? At the moment she doesn’t want to be anywhere else but I’ve told her if ever that day came, whatever she wants to do is ok and I am here if she needs me. I can’t do more than that. I think everyone is dishing out some sound advice and you visit as much as you want. My sadness is that I couldn’t bring dad home for a bar-b-q on Monday afternoon, and therefore mum missed out on a family do as she wanted to be with him.
Anyway, the home your OH is in sounds so lovely I don’t blame you for wanting to visit him and everyone else in it daily.
Dad’s been quite sleepy lately and I thought it was a downturn and then yesterday when I visited he was so bright and happy and smiling and laughing at everything I said. I left there feeling on top of the world after feeling so down the day before because I couldn’t get him out for the afternoon. There definitely might be something in this weather theory as it was much darker and cooler yesterday
Mum still visits every single day, and I tell her if she wants a day off but is worried about dad I will go in and be with him all afternoon until he’s tucked up in bed but she says what will I do then? At the moment she doesn’t want to be anywhere else but I’ve told her if ever that day came, whatever she wants to do is ok and I am here if she needs me. I can’t do more than that. I think everyone is dishing out some sound advice and you visit as much as you want. My sadness is that I couldn’t bring dad home for a bar-b-q on Monday afternoon, and therefore mum missed out on a family do as she wanted to be with him.
Anyway, the home your OH is in sounds so lovely I don’t blame you for wanting to visit him and everyone else in it daily.
Dad’s been quite sleepy lately and I thought it was a downturn and then yesterday when I visited he was so bright and happy and smiling and laughing at everything I said. I left there feeling on top of the world after feeling so down the day before because I couldn’t get him out for the afternoon. There definitely might be something in this weather theory as it was much darker and cooler yesterday
Hi there @70smand - I don't think we've been in touch before and hope you don't mind my responding. Totally understand your mum wanting to visit every day and your concern about her but - as we all seem to agree - if she's comfortable with it, then best to go with it . At least you are looking out for her and ready to step in if needs be. I too saw my mum take a downturn but had a happy visit today. Precious moments aren't they? @kindred really has come up with an interesting observation about the weather hasn't she?hBeen busy the past few days with work and family and just catching up. It’s lovely to read everyone’s postings on your thread Kindred. Maybe you need to gargle with paracetamol, or something to revive your voice, was it the Freddie Mercury that did it?
Mum still visits every single day, and I tell her if she wants a day off but is worried about dad I will go in and be with him all afternoon until he’s tucked up in bed but she says what will I do then? At the moment she doesn’t want to be anywhere else but I’ve told her if ever that day came, whatever she wants to do is ok and I am here if she needs me. I can’t do more than that. I think everyone is dishing out some sound advice and you visit as much as you want. My sadness is that I couldn’t bring dad home for a bar-b-q on Monday afternoon, and therefore mum missed out on a family do as she wanted to be with him.
Anyway, the home your OH is in sounds so lovely I don’t blame you for wanting to visit him and everyone else in it daily.
Dad’s been quite sleepy lately and I thought it was a downturn and then yesterday when I visited he was so bright and happy and smiling and laughing at everything I said. I left there feeling on top of the world after feeling so down the day before because I couldn’t get him out for the afternoon. There definitely might be something in this weather theory as it was much darker and cooler yesterday
I'm going to look into this I think. Sending warm thoughts to you and your family. Hope your dad continues with this good spell.
I HAD NO IDEA either. Having an OH as PWD is my first experience with it. No parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles or even friends family had this...except DIL’s grandparents who I have not interacted with.
And in my case, he keeps duping me. He seems so normal. We are not at the stage of asking the same questions over and over and his confusion like (“It’s still not June yet?”) can be attributed to being retired. The subtleness gets to me. I am out of town for the weekend and the SS are coming, one Friday and the other Saturday. This has been talked about for a couple of weeks. Today I get a text from the sitter saying OH told her not to come Friday because his daughters will be here Thursday and Friday. No, it’s Friday and Saturday. Last time I went away for 1 week, he thought it was 2 weeks and cancelled everything for the 2nd week. The confusion is bad enough but when it gets used to “mess up things” (no sitter on Friday) it gets so frustrating!!!!
And if he ever figures out how to change his passcode on his phone I don’t know what I’ll do...not because I NEED to get into it, but I fear he’ll forget it and then what can be done. Even Apple won’t allow a passcode to be given out. And yes, that’s anticipatory anxiety but someone sort of said, “if I’m not preparing for the what could go wrong, and it does go wrong, it’s MY fault.” Might have been @margherita ?
And while on the domestic wildlife theme: late last night I realised the painters in their painterly zeal had left off the ceiling trapdoor. This small piece of wood is the only barrier between us and most of Perth’s night creatures, who regard our roof space as their winter home.
Consternation! What to do? Short of patrolling the corridor with torches all night, there wasn’t much we COULD do. Time was too short to build a little ladder for tiny (and not so tiny) paws to climb all the way back up again, if they fell down the hole.
So we just shut the bedroom door and hoped for the best! Our incredible bravery (pause for cheers) was rewarded this morning by an animal-free interior. Seemingly.
But where was the Destroyer of Moths when we needed her? Off at the CH having fun I expect!!! Next thing she’ll be singing!
@kindred @Jezzer @imsoblue @Grahamstown @Ann Mac @Slugsta
@margherita
@Mudgee Joy
Last edited:
So glad y'all survived! Wouldn't want to read a raccoon had taken you both away! Thanks for the laugh!
@imsoblue Hi there! We didn't experience quite what you're going through with Mum. How on earth do you cope? I can only imagine what it must be like. There should be something in place for passcodes etc so that OHs can be given an emergency code to use if necessary. So many little but massively important things the phone companies, gas/electricity providers to name just two, need to sort out. Thinking of you.
Brave indeed! I would have been terrified. I'm ashamed to say I know pretty much nothing about small Australian wildlife. Dare I ask what we are talking about here?? Hmm yes, where is DOM when you need her????? Rehearsing with vocal coach maybe???
Oh thank you so very much, this is wonderful. Thank you for taking my theory about light seriously too, I do appreciate that. Back at Uni on another planet I was a singer with a band for a little while. Love singing and OH home has revived that. Strange old world. Thank you so much.
Thank you! This weather business is very interesting! Have got some voice today but not quite up to Delilah standards. Thank you, too. I so need to see my beloved OH every day. What else am I for? Thank you with all heart.Been busy the past few days with work and family and just catching up. It’s lovely to read everyone’s postings on your thread Kindred. Maybe you need to gargle with paracetamol, or something to revive your voice, was it the Freddie Mercury that did it?
Mum still visits every single day, and I tell her if she wants a day off but is worried about dad I will go in and be with him all afternoon until he’s tucked up in bed but she says what will I do then? At the moment she doesn’t want to be anywhere else but I’ve told her if ever that day came, whatever she wants to do is ok and I am here if she needs me. I can’t do more than that. I think everyone is dishing out some sound advice and you visit as much as you want. My sadness is that I couldn’t bring dad home for a bar-b-q on Monday afternoon, and therefore mum missed out on a family do as she wanted to be with him.
Anyway, the home your OH is in sounds so lovely I don’t blame you for wanting to visit him and everyone else in it daily.
Dad’s been quite sleepy lately and I thought it was a downturn and then yesterday when I visited he was so bright and happy and smiling and laughing at everything I said. I left there feeling on top of the world after feeling so down the day before because I couldn’t get him out for the afternoon. There definitely might be something in this weather theory as it was much darker and cooler yesterday
I've just read that "natural sunlight is the best therapy for sufferers of Alzheimers". Not sure who wrote it (probably someone who has no experience of Alzheimers) but a few of us have definitely agreed that your theory about dull days being more conducive to a more alert and positive frame of mind could well be right. I guess I shouldn't really have criticised the author of the piece and I've no wish to offend anyone whose loved ones may have benefited from light therapy, but certainly mum has her better days when the weather is overcast. I will keep investigating!
yes, thank you. I wonder what it is we are discovering here? This is so interesting! Dull day today so we shall see ...
Well look I wouldn’t tell anyone else this of course but what we are talking about is as follows. First we have possums, brush-tailed ones which are big and lumpy and not as pretty as the dainty ring-tailed ones. We had one die in our roof once. The smell!
They are nocturnal. We used to hear him or her come in under the eaves above our bedroom about four am. As it got older it used to snore. This went on for years. So we reckon it chose our ceiling to live out its last days. It was a compliment really.
This was perhaps not the one that used to eat our mandarins. The tree was close to the back verandah roof. That possum would jump from the tree to our roof, landing with a terrific whack, then lose its grip, and roll bump bump bump down till it fell off. Always in the middle of the night of course. It was a regular occurrence when the fruit were ripe.
Now keep this under your hat but - in the second place - we also have RATS. Yes it is true. The river is quite close which means our suburb is notorious for them; and if there’s any building work going on in neighboring houses, then we get their quota in addition to our own.
To save face we call them tree rats - but the local council says they are as bad as the other sorts. (Rattus rattus and Rattus Norwegicus.). As you can see I am an authority on them, said modestly.
The pest control guy lays baits in the roof every three to six months and this makes life manageable. I know I need to call him when I hear a gum nut (eucalyptus tree nut, a bit like an acorn) being rolled up and down the length of the house, on the top of the ceiling. It’s the rats having a play.
So now you know. Keep it under your hat though.
Oh no my dearest, will not tell a single soul. We had a local rat once, lived in the holly tree outside the local caff. We loved sitting in the window seat and watching its antics. It was a very healthy and well fed rat I have to say ...
I'm wishing I hadn't asked - that'll teach me! I will repeat to neither man nor beast I promise. Well I have seen possums on TV and thought "Aaah how cute". Clearly they were not the other variety you mentioned. And when I've seen Dame Edna on TV call out "Hello possums" to his/her (am I allowed to say that - should it now be their?) adoring audience, would they laugh if they knew he/she might have been referring to the not-so-cute ones? Ha, all those audiences unknowingly insulted over the years. Rats I'm sorry to say I have witnessed - in the back garden a couple of years ago. Not small and definitely not cute. Pest control sorted that out. And yet I wish they didn't have to be killed. As an animal lover I hate any creatures to be hurt/ destroyed. And now to my last question and I know I shouldn't ask - what about spiders? I've heard horror stories about Aussie Spiders. When I was a child (still am truth be told) mum used to say "Oh Jan, they are more frightened of you". I'de reply "Mum, trust me, honestly they're not". Elephants and Rhinos are my passion. I am the adoptive mum of several. I love them! Anyway enough of that. Thank you for answering my questions. Time to head off to see my darling little mum. I wonder what today will bring. Love to you allx
