Monday, June 25, 2012

Dementia again

I was reading a book on my Kindle this morning. The book is LIFE IS A VERB by Patti Digh. The book is not about dementia, but the story in the early chapters was about an older woman with dementia. I found that I wanted to shake the author who is part of the family of this woman. They had to have been in denial over her sickness to have allowed her to get to the point of crisis all alone. They handled the crisis correctly, but the fact that they let it go that far without taking action just made me mad.

The early chapters of that book are actually about not seeing the fault in the people around you, which I almost find funny. But in this case the woman's family could just as easily have found her dead in her house instead of stuck in a chair she had been sitting on for a few days unable to move. And yes, I do find fault.

Dealing with dementia is very difficult for anyone involved. For one thing the caregivers don't see the changes as early as they need to, even when they are doing the best they can. We don't want that one additional change, the one that will end up changing everything, to happen. But it does happen.

I don't know if the rest of the book will be useful to me or not. The rules are filled with what I consider silly stuff, like typing on your computer with the screen off. Or just writing without editing. The stuff is silly because, as Dr. Phil would say, this is not my first rodeo. I've been journaling for years. I can write without editing on a computer with the screen up. I can write longhand for pages never looking at what I wrote. If the book gets beyond baby steps it might be useful, or not. Won't know for sure for another few days.

And then there is the question of when a book is useable on a Kindle and when it isn't. I find novels very readable on Kindles, and I have the additional advantage of not needing to find shelf space for the book after I read it. The Fire is a 7 inch tablet. That is somewhat small for most craft and needlework books. Mostly those work better as hard copy. I don't know if I will still think so when the 10 inch tablet Kindle comes out. They say later this year. I guess we will see.

Take care all.

2 comments:

  1. My sisters don't want to do much about my mother's memory issues until there is a crisis--they feel that to limit her independence now would be taking away from her quality of life. I'm trying to accept that as a valid choice because one sister lives closest and my hands are full with caring for my husband who has Lewy Body Dementia

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  2. Your hands really are full. And I get that you can't second guess what your sister is doing. Take care of yourself too. I've discovered that is the most important thing you can do.

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