February Decision

Many of you have been to homes that take care of patients with Dementia and you know that it can be an awful feeling thinking that your loved one will be in one of these someday. I spent several hours last Friday touring a facility and visiting with the staff. I was pretty good until we went on the tour. It is one of the saddest places to visit. I applaud those who work in such facilities.
It has been on my mind lately, but after last Friday I have decided not to think about it, or worry about it for now. It's not the right time. I will look at the situation again in February, but not now. This will give me time to continue looking at facilities for the future. Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me to begin the process.
Jan's condition is about the same and the only problem that may be raising it's head is her willingness to accept instructions. Sometimes you have to remind her to do certain things and now she seems more willing to have a confrontation. Which if that grows or gets worse, I can't handle that. She has almost no gray hair and if you have been to a facility you know everyone in there has gray hair.

It can drive you crazy!

One day he post how bad the symptoms were becoming and the next day I'm telling you about her joking around and having fun. So what is happening? Well here is your answer...............I don't have the foggiest idea how or why this happens, it just happens. Moments like these make me question some of my former thoughts. It certainly confuses many issues concerning what is happening, and where we thought things were going. If it seems like a confused person is doing these postings, well you may just be right. I can't answer it.

It goes and it comes.

Some days just seem impossible. And then when you think that she is totally out of it, in pops a comment from Jan that is just so funny it's hard to believe. My brother and his wife were visiting today and we were just talking and talking. Jan was her usual quiet self, not appearing to be in the conversation at all and then she surprises you. We were talking about things that we have lost and I was saying that I don't know what happened to my high school letter jacket, cause I really wish I had it. My brother was saying that he didn't have it, and in pops Jan's comments.
She said with the right tone, "Now what girl do you think he gave that too?" We all got such a big laugh out of it, they were both bragging and agreeing with Jan as she was trying to give me a hard time. We were all laughing out loud and saying way to go Jan. It was the first words she had spoken all day. Very funny.

Her Condition

Anyone would like to report that she is improving and making progress. Well, I can't report that. She continues to lose in this battle to just maintain some kind of good things in her life. In addition to a worsening of symptoms a new one has begun to show itself. She typically goes to bed sometime around 9:00 p.m. Well now she will got to bed and then she is up two hours later. Get her back to bed and she is up again for no reason, just up. There have been a few nights when sleep was hard to get. She also has begun to walk around the house, just walk, not needing anything or going anywhere, she just feels compelled to just walk. The dogs have finally caught on that she is not going anywhere.
She had a great Friday night a couple weeks ago. Two of her friends came and stayed with her while I went to a Ranger game with a friend. These folks talk alot and laugh alot, so she was really stimulated for several days, to say the least. She got to have some fun and really enjoyed herself and I really appreciate their effort.

What you might not know about her!

I'm not sure many of you know the full story about Jan. It seems that all the talk has been about my football playing days. I wanted to share more things about her because some of her accomplishments are more than remarkable. This new picture was taken I think sometime during her junior year, 1965. This is the picture that I kept in my dorm room at Tech to remind me that I was engaged. You can see why I went home every chance I got. Additionally, I think that Jan was the first and maybe the only girl from WF that was chosen class beauty for 4 years in a row. I say this because the 9th grade was in high school when we opened Hirschi High School and she was a freshmen beauty as chosen by her classmates. She was a cheerleader her senior year, president of the thespian club, gym leader and she won what was called "The Loyalty Award", and it was the first of it's kind between all schools in WF. The classmates at Hirschi outvoted the other candidates from the other schools and Hirschi was the smallest school. In her senior year the school had a sweetheart contest and guess who was the winner of that? None other than Jan and I came home to escort her to this banquet, and of course this was another first for anyone from Hirschi. One of a kind.