Saturday, November 20, 2021

We are leaving to pick up Mike's family at the airport in a bit over 2 hours. They are on their first flight (they have to connect through JFK). Mike's car is packed to the gills (it is a small car) and I have to drop Justice off where he is staying for the next week. I will miss the little boy but he should be fine as he went there a couple of weeks ago and did well with the other doggies (I watch the cams).

I sure hope the weather cooperates. There is a chance of showers I think for the first few days then 1-2 days of cool weather (65 with a north wind) before it warms up for Thanksgiving. I slept super heavy last night so should be in shape for the festivities. We will arrive at the house we are staying in mid-afternoon.

Have a safe and healthy Saturday!

Oh, my! It must be a busy day for everyone (myself included)!!!!

Had some fun with the doppler device and Liza last night. Took some time, but I found 8 puppy heartbeats. That makes me happy. We were originally told 10 or more pups by the vet in Washington. When I got Liza two weeks ago I knew there was no way it was going to be 10. She was too small. My vet was able to see 6, maybe 7 on ultra sound. Finding 8 heartbeats was a happy compromise between 10 and 6!

Weight is stable. I am keeping in a 2 pound range lately. My nutritional counselor finds that bizarre. Most men my size have much wider fluctuations apparently. 2 pounds if fine by me. Much more would be a crazy maker. My session yesterday was pretty good. I'm in that keeping on keeping on mode and being pretty accepting of my eating. I'm liking that. Revised goal is to maintain within my range rather than lose during the eating season. I think that's a healthier goal for me right now.

Grooming and club meetings and paperwork and a little elderly father rescuing was my activity today. I am growing more and more concerned about my dad as the days pass. He is clearly suffering from mental decline. He knows it, too. I can tell it bothers him, though he is too proud to really talk about it. Tomorrow my brother and I are completing a form together for the memory clinic appointment my dad will go to in December. We thought it best to submit one form that we fill out together so the "data" is not conflicting or confusing.

My big accomplishment today was sorting, filing, round filing, and shredding a large stack of mail and paperwork I have been neglecting. Felt good to have that off my plate.

8 puppies! How exciting! We so love being vicarious puppy parents with you

I am sorry about your Dad. Question: what is the purpose of the assessment? I assume you know that there really isn't any treatment - the available medications sound good but at most delay the decline by a few months which is essentially nothing in the overall scheme. And there is no way to predict the rate of decline so advance planning is pretty difficult. Just saying... I felt driven to get a diagnosis for DH because I thought it would make a difference but the only value in it was being able to go on SSN disability until he was full retirement age and being able to have him participate in a clinical trial (which was halted a year in). The latter probably wouldn't even have required a formal diagnosis because they were just looking for self reported memory impairment and they did the same testing that we had done in the beginning themselves.

The purposes of the assessment multiple. First, we want a diagnosis so he will qualify for any extra care he might need, like using his home health care insurance. Second, he respects medical advice and if the medical advice is to stop driving, he is more likely to follow the advice coming from a medical professional. We have gently gotten him to realize that driving far from home is not wise. He no longer drives into town or on the freeways. He stays in a small familiar radius that isn't stressful for him. He has now taken to allowing his sons to be the driver in most situations. Giving up driving all together would be a great thing, IMO. Third, with a diagnosis of dementia or cognitive decline he will also be entitled to certain types of independent living help through his HMO - kind of like occupational therapy. Our goal is to keep him independent for as long as possible and have a smooth transition into assisted living in a NICE memory care facility.

And maybe wrong as it is, I would love for him to go to sleep and stroke out and not wake up. He has always prided himself on his intelligence and mental prowess. (He still talked about his 'perfect' SAT score in English when I was entering university!) I am already seeing the stress and frustration the decline is causing him. I don't want that for him. If he follows in his older brother's footsteps it'll be a fast decline from 93-95. During that time my uncle became non ambulatory and non verbal. It was really sad. One of those perfect fall asleep and don't wake up passings would be so nice, IMO.

I completely agree with your last statement. Really a terrible way to have to end life (not that other ways aren't just as awful sometimes). IMHO going in one's sleep without know it is coming at least at that point would be the best way to pass.

So lucky that your Dad has some Home Health Care insurance. It does make sense for you to be able to tap those resources. We didn't have that (other than SSN). Good luck.

Hi, today was unremarkable as I chipped away at chores. The gift I gave myself was not multitasking, that it was okay to tackle tasks at a moderate pace. It was nice not to do things at a frenetic pace, there's enough of that at work. One task, clean sheets. One of life's great pleasures I think, only made better by bring able to hang the sheets to dry in the sun. But as it is 32 here, dryer sheets will do :)