Dementia at Fifty!

Narcissistic Personality: qualities include thinking very highly of oneself, needing admiration, believing others are inferior, and lacking empathy for others. No, Larry is not narcissistic at all, I just thought it was interesting. . . 

A while back, someone asked me the question of “why not?” when I replied “no.” to a question asked of me.  I started to reply with a good ole, “huh?”, but my upbringing stopped me, and I just listed a couple of the many reasons why I couldn’t do what I was being asked to do. Do people really have the right to ask why? Maybe, maybe not. 

My life is pretty much an open book, if you know me, you know practically EVERYTHING about me, my life, my crazy husband, my pets, my kids, my crazy-ass girlfriends that keep me sane and my sweet girlfriends that say the right things to put a smile on my face, and most likely, if you know me really well, you know how much of a punch in the gut our new way of life has become for me and Larry. Maybe next time I will say “huh?”! 

Or better yet, maybe I will just tell the whole truth; I am so exhausted my eyes burn when they’re open and I spent the last 28 hours in a hospital trying to get my husband taken care of and I just want to sleep for a little while before I have surgery on Monday to repair my wrist that hurts 24 seven, that’s what I really wanted to say but I didn’t. 

WOW! I wrote all of that July 4^th, Larry and I had just come home from the emergency room. Larry had The Watchman Device placed in his chest July 3^rd, it’s a small device to rid him of blood clots so he could stop taking Eliquis (causes internal bleeding). It was an outpatient procedure, however after we got home and into the night he was in so much pain I called rescue for him. At the hospital I spent 3 hours advocating for him to be catharized, I knew what the issue was and he was in so much pain. The bladder scanner was missing and they wouldn’t do a cath until his bladder could be scanned. . . until I advocated just a little harder, over 700 ml of fluid (or 3 cups) were drained from is bladder and he said “Ahhhhh” after the cath was inserted, geez it was a bad night. When we finally got back home, I was evidently miserable, and wrote all that. I was ashamed when I found it today, but man, it was a good reminder of how good God has been to us. 

Since then, Larry has been improving physically by leaps and bounds, don’t get me wrong the dementia is still there and some days are better than others, but we are good for the better part.  Our neurologist recently diagnosed Larry with Vascular Parkinsonism and wrote him orders to attend physical therapy.  At first Larry fought us on it, but we convinced him to give it a try for one week. We are at the end of week 4, and he loves it. These people are incredible, they specialize in Parkinson’s and Neurological issues. Larry’s therapists’ name is Sabrina, she has long blonde hair, very cute and young. . . all of Larry’s favorite qualities in a therapist. She is also very educated in helping control a lot of the symptoms of Parkinson disease and she saw Larry coming a mile away. The room is always full of people with the same issues as Larry and it’s really helping his confidence in walking, balancing, stepping, speaking, remembering, falling and so much more. It’s amazing! He’s been so afraid to be alone in case he falls and can’t get back up, but he has been doing this exercise of lying flat on his back on the ground and getting back up, it only took him 14 seconds the first time. He needs this confidence; I need this confidence. 

My wrist surgery was a success! I am pain free for the most part, still recovering from surgery, but the constant throbbing was gone the moment the feeling came back into my arm. 

 I surrender.

God is good, all the time!