Over the past two years Gerry has settled in to a kind of routine. He stays busy. He still doesn't watch a lot of tv but he does watch some. But These days he makes sure to be careful. After almost cutting one thumb off with the table saw, and dinging another one with it, he finally listened and sold the table saw. Now all I have to worry about is the hammer, the floor, the ladder, all those little things he uses almost daily. He is smarter, calmer and works thru on one project at a time. He even finished those shelves that he said I wanted in the pantry that caused the big thumb cut way back. He has increased his coin collection to epic size and spends a lot of time on it. He has worked in his little room and made it all his. He has more little crap stuff hanging on the walls, sitting off he shelves. I go in now and then and there are always new thinkgs to see. He love tiny little toys. One night this week I awoke in the middle of the night and was in the bathroom when from a storm raging outside the electricity went off . So in the quiet, I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I heard this weak little "quack", then a few second later I heard it again. I had the feeling I was still asleep and was dreaming because we don't have a duck! So I started walking thru the house to see if I would heard it again, there it goes "quack" . I went every where trying To locate the sound in the dark. Finally in his room I isolated the sound. He has a stuffed duck which is about he size of a big basketball and evidentially the batteries were dying and he duck was quacking. I just sat there and laughed while taking the batteries out of the duck. It's always something funny with my husband.
There is always a downside of course and ours is the fact that his son has cut him off completely. He can't really even explain why, he is very angry and just says, "I can't take it any more." What do you do. So he has stayed away and grieved daily for his only son and oldest grandson whom he loves more than life. We have no idea of how to mend this gulf. No one will get involved to help. You can't force someone to talk to you who is not willing. I pray daily for this to change and if I can ever come up with a way to change it I will but it doesn't look good. We both have a great worry that he may be experiencing early stages of AD because the anger and other things reminds us both of Gerry way back when, BAD, before AD. This is one person whom we would like to see benefit from being tested to rule out future problems. We pray we are wrong.
On a high note Gerry and his Mom have really been getting along very well. They talk for at least an hour every Tuesday and he goes to visit when he can. His mom is now 90 yrs old and is in the best health both mentally and physically that she has been in for years. He lives for his Tuesday chat with his "crazy" Mother, that's a private joke with them. We hope that this continues on for many years, we just hate living so far away from her.
Another downside is that his only sister passed away in July 2015 after a terrible battle with first FTD and second ALS. Although we weren't allowed to see her, we both know that it was an excruciating way to die. So there is another link to the Alzheimer gene being in this family. She was only 65. Also his Mother's last brother who is 87 has worsened in his mental health and is very deep into the stages of Alzheimer's. This is very sad because of not only the disease but his living situation. So out of her 10 half siblings and her 9 siblings there are herself and 2 sisters (in good mind) and 1 brother left. Many of the older 10 died from AD, not sure how many, and of the 10 of my which Mother is the oldest at 90, 4 died from AD and 2 from diabetes. I hope that adds up to 10.
This should be about Gerry, but I feel here things are important in his life and have a bearing on it. His health has been good, he has controlled his diabetes pretty well. He's had a problem with high potassium but I think it's fixed with medication and a good kidney doctor. I am so impressed with all of his being and am so happy he is doing so well. We tend to stay away from stressful situations and find that that is helpful in controlling the beast. He has a best friend from I think sixth grade thru graduation, they reconnected at their 50th class reunion and have rekindled their friendship and it has been the greatest thing ever! Everyone needs a friend like Frank.
I'm always reading and doing surveys online in reference to Alzheimers. I entered us both in a brain bank called Mindset, pretty interesting stuff. So we are in a brain bank. Along with that I signed him up for a Clinical Trial with me as his partner. Yesterday was our first session. He passed that and they will call us back in for the next session. He did really well. His well being is a testament, I think, to the medication. Aricept that he has been taking from the beginning. It tells me that early detection is utmost in conquering Alzheimers and related disease. If we can be of help to others it will be wonderful. Everyone needs to pitch in and do what they can to help.
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