I have been praying for God to guide us in the way we should go. I love my church family and especially our care group but I also love being close to my sister. At this time in our lives we are caregivers to someone special in our lives and we have been calling and giving each other the best support we can - the short distance we live from one another seems like a million miles. Its not just the support for the caregiving but the support about life in general that we do for each other, no one can understand the hows or whys of our decisions except someone who has traveled the same journey growing up. There are lots of things to consider for the future and so I continue to pray and I try to remain silent so I can hear what God is saying. I continue to wait.
Linda did come down last Thursday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon. It was a quick very busy weekend. As you know I have been needing to purge and organize our home. It is important to simplify our home to make life less cluttered and easier for Dave. Gabriella and I did get a start but it was a job bigger than the two of us so I was so happy to have Linda come down and help as much as possible. To me the jobs seemed overwhelming but Linda was determined to get it done. Trying to prioritize was even difficult so I just put out there the jobs I wanted done and we decided to start with the smallest and work our way up and what got done got done. Well, the laundry room and back closet is completely done! We have so much more room and storage space now I can't believe it! We moved things down on shelves I can reach and Dave could find much more quickly. Our next really big job was the garage. UGH!! I would look at it and become so overwhelmed! This is where Gabriella and I had already started cleaning and I am so glad we did because it had given us some room to work in. Believe it or not we got the garage done too! Well, there is still some things that need to be completed, Dave has boxes of stuff in the "loft" that need to be brought down and gone through and there are still a couple of small areas I need to work on in the main area of the garage but now you can walk in there and find things. Dave and I made so many trips to Good Will I have lost count! I am pretty sure our neighbors think we will be moving and probably can't believe all the stuff we had stored in our home!! There is still a lot that needs to get done but I feel like I can take a breather and have a couple of relaxing days once in awhile! I know that I am probably missing out on some days that Dave and I could be out having fun but the summer time is the best time for me to get this all done while I can put things outside and sort them out so I am trying to get things done as quickly as possible.
This week was the 6 month follow up with the doctors. Dave has been experiencing some light headiness when rising from a sitting position and I felt his blood pressure was running too low. The doctor agreed and decreased his blood pressure medication. Dave's lab work came back with great results, according to the doctor they were "perfect"! His cholesterol is low and everything else was looking great! That was a very good visit!
The next day (Thursday) was the visit to the neurologist. This is the visit that was dreaded the most. This visit, for Dave, was not all that good. The doctor started just having a conversation with Dave asking him how things were going and Dave did the best he could but it was obvious that he was having difficulty coming up with the words. Then the questions started: who is the president, what is the name of the street you live on, who are the current candidates in the political race. Dave did not know the answers. He stated his mind was a complete blank. So the Dr turned to me and asked me how he was doing so I gave the report-loses his words, gets turned around when we are out and even in our own home, having difficulty with stairs, walks slower than normal, cannot recall names of our daughter-in-laws, his grandchildren or his sisters. His sleep is disruptive, sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night or has difficulty falling asleep. The look on the dr's face was all I needed to see to know what I suspected, Dave is progressing faster than he should be and the medication was not working. We are to increase his medication but also adding some medication that will ease the queasiness - the increase of dosage makes Dave sick to his stomach. So we are slowly increasing his medication and hopefully he will not have problems. I asked the Dr what should we expect and he said that there will be a slowing down of the progression and he will be attentive to task. The Dr also gave an order for a B12 shot.
While we waited for the nurse Dave cried. He said he knew things were getting worse and moving fast but to hear it out loud and to see the look on the dr's face made it all so real and scary. The realization that he never could recall the name of the street we live on or even what numbers are part of our address made him cry even more. (Not even today, Friday, can he recall the name of the street, he has lost it forever.) He cried later because he said "I told Gabriella I will always be around." I told him that is why the medication was increased, so he can see Izzy grow. (I stated her specifically because she is the youngest grandchild and it would make the biggest impact.) I told him he needed to do what he had to to tolerate the medication so he can be "around" for as long as possible. And so we will see, we have started with 5 mg of medication 2x per day then will go to 10mg in the morning and 5 mg in the evening then move to 10mg 2x/day. He will not gain back what he lost but slowing down the progression sounds good to me.
Next week Anita is coming to town and we are so looking forward to her visit! Dave loves seeing his sisters and the socialization does him,us, some good. We are planning on another week of getting organized. How blessed are we to have sisters willing to come and help in ways I never would have thought I would ever need! How much better can God be? He knows all our needs and takes care of them.
Monica
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