Friday Again? Thank Goodness!

Another work week complete!  Yeah!  Of course we are supposed to get lots of rain (maybe some storms) and can you believe it, SNOW this weekend.  I guess that means no picture taking for me this weekend (darn!).  But it does mean that I can get around to really cleaning my house.  I started a little tonight by going through my closets (yes, more than 1 ok) and pulling out things that I haven't worn or don't like or don't fit and put them in the charity pile (everything that J and I want to get rid of goes to a charity unless it can't be used again or is just plain nasty).  I decided to be really honest with myself this time around and I pulled out a load of stuff, I still have to go through my shoes but that shouldn't take too long.  I'm so proud of myself for getting all that done tonight even after working all day, usually I'm a couch potato when I get home.  Now if I can get motivated to clean my bathroom the rest of the house will be easy.  Wish me luck!  

Blessings & Dish Pan Hands,

Magnolia

How's It Going? Really?

So as you know I've been avoiding talking about myself or my family for a while.  Truth be told, there's not a lot to say.  Well, maybe there is.  I am going to start out by saying how incredibly proud I am of my Mom, she has picked herself up and gotten things done all while grieving her husband.  She and Dad were married for almost 52 years (that's not a typo, that's a loooonnnngggg time, especially these days) and for the last 7 years she's been there for him, from checking and double checking medications to trips to the doctor to just sitting with him those last few days, she if the true example of "till death do you part".  And on top of it all she has COPD and is diabetic and kept herself healthy during all of this.  I am so in awe of my Mom I just can't begin to tell you what a wonderful woman she is.  My sister is getting there in terms of grieving, she has good days and not so great days, but that's to be expected.  Now for myself, there are unexpected moments that I think about my Dad and just want to crawl up on a closet and cry my eyeballs out.  At those moments, I just stop and talk to God and Daddy (there standing in Heaven thinking I'm nuts I promise you), just as if there were standing right beside me and somehow I realize that I'm okay.  I will say this, I've noticed that I talk a lot about him, more so now than ever, he's probably thinking that's kind of funny too (that's me Dad, your source of entertainment, right!).  So now that you know what's been going on I'll leave you all with a little advise on grieving, I've found that I find solace in my hobbies/passions.  As you all know photography is my passion, so I've been snapping up a storm and that really calms me down, so find a hobby/passion that you can throw yourself into.  Well that's enough for tonight.  Sleep tight!

Sweet Dreams,

Magnolia

BIG News!

I must have missed this BIG news, guess it was one of those days that I was out in "la-la" land!  Here you go...

Congress approves $10 billion in scientific research funding

The Alzheimer's Association commends Congress for passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which will provide a much-needed $10 billion increase in funding for National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research — the largest funding increase for NIH in 5 years. For the more than 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer's disease, this investment is a significant first step in working to bring scientific breakthroughs in Alzheimer's and other major chronic diseases to fruition.

We applaud Congress and the Obama administration for recognizing that this vital infusion of funding into scientific research that works to save lives but also works to shore up the scientific research enterprise. The American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act also includes $1 billion for a Prevention and Wellness Fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is our hope that strategies to address chronic disease and expand health brain initiatives will result from this additional funding.

We would especially like to thank Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) for their leadership in helping to secure this substantial funding increase for NIH. We are optimistic that part of this funding will increase support for research to cure, prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease.

Finally, we would like to thank the thousands of Alzheimer advocates from across the country who reached out to their members of Congress to urge their support of this important legislation.

The Alzheimer's Association
The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's. For more information, visit www.alz.org.

This news thrills me to death needless to say, just wish that it had happened 5 or 10 years ago, but better late than never right!  

Pic of the day

Blessings,

Magnolia

What you don't want to know

OK, does the next article scare me half to death, yep it sure does, but I have taken my postings very seriously on this blog, so I feel the need to share this one with you.  You can never be to prepared.  So here it goes.

Bad gene, parent with dementia raise memory-loss risk

09:16 PM CST on Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Bloomberg News

Middle-age people are two to three times more likely to have poor memories if they have a parent with dementia as well as one or two copies of a gene known to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, a study found.

Researchers at Boston University gave memory tests to 715 people whose average age was 60 and also checked if they had a variant of a gene known as ApoE4 that increases the risk of Alzheimer's. Among people with one or two copies of the bad gene, those who had a parent with dementia performed much more poorly on the memory tests than people whose parents didn't have dementia, said Sudha Seshadri, an associate professor at the university's Alzheimer's Disease Center.

The findings may help families of the 5.2 million people in the U.S. who have Alzheimer's, a progressive, fatal disease that destroys brain cells, understand their risks. Americans older than 55 fear they will develop Alzheimer's more than any other illness, according to a 2006 MetLife Foundation survey.

"What's interesting is the fact that the difference is so large between the two groups," Seshadri, the study's senior author, said in a telephone interview today. "It's equivalent to the difference between people who are 15 years apart."

As people age, their memories often decline. None of the people who were tested had clinical symptoms of dementia and all fell within the wide definitio

ns of normal memory performance, Seshadri said.

Reducing Risk

At this point, there are no special steps middle-age people should take if their parents have dementia beyond following standard healthy-living practices, Seshadri said.

"Everybody who is middle-aged needs to do things to reduce their risk of dementia and heart attack by staying socially engaged, engaging in physical activity, controlling their blood pressure and diabetes and maintaining a healthy weight," she said. "Those are things everybody should do."

Ten million baby boomers eventually will develop it, says the Alzheimer's Association, adding urgency to efforts to prevent or treat the illness.

For the study, Seshadri and her colleagues followed children born to people who were enrolled in the long-running Framingham Heart Study begun 50 years ago.

Further research over time will be needed to see if the people who scored more poorly will go on to develop dementia at a greater rate than their peers whose sc

ores were higher, Seshadri said. The findings were released in advance of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, where Seshadri's study will be presented at the end of April.

Thanks for reading even though you might not want to know.  I know that I don't even like to think about my chances of having AD and what my husband may have to go through.  I've prayed about it and I know that God will do what's best according to his plan.

Blessings & More,

Magnolia

Dementia as Cause of Death

Here's your news article of the week...

TUESDAY, Dec. 9 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that medical officials often fail to record severe dementia as a cause of death in patients with the condition.

This finding not only points to a lack of knowledge about how dementia -- a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease -- can be a deadly illness, it suggests that deaths due to Alzheimer's and dementia may be severely underestimated, said report co-author Dr. Susan Mitchell, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"With dementia so underrepresented on death certificates, it further exacerbates the issue of dementia not being a terminal illness," Mitchell said. In addition, she said, bad assumptions about dementia can lead doctors and relatives to make ill-informed decisions about patients at the end of life.

Alzheimer's disease is the fifth leading cause of death among people 65 and older in the United States, according to 2004 federal statistics. Those figures were based on information from death certificates, Mitchell said, and some studies have suggested the numbers are too low.

In the new study, Mitchell and her colleagues examined the medical records and death certificates of 165 patients with advanced dementia who died between 2003 and 2007. They all lived in Boston-area nursing homes.

Thirty-seven percent of the death certificates didn't list dementia as the main cause of death or a contributing factor. Just 16 percent listed dementia as the main cause of death.

In patients with diagnosed Alzheimer's disease, one-third didn't mention the condition as a cause of death or contributing factor, the study found.

The findings were published in a letter in the Dec. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Mitchell said the failure to recognize dementia as a cause of death doesn't appear to be intentional. "There has been a general under-recognition of dementia as a cause of death. People have trouble getting their head around that."

Thank goodness my Dad was one of the few who's death certificate listed dementia as a cause of death.  If anything good came of his suffering it is that he's check is on the side of saying that AD & dementia is in  fact a terminal illness.  I thank the hospice doctor for helping this cause, may more doctors be more like him and be bold enough to list AD or dementia as a cause of death.  

Picture of the day (and by the way the last picture posted are the gears of a tank!)

Blessings,

Magnolia

Stage 6

Stage 6 as defined by the Alzheimer's Association

Memory difficulties continue to worsen, significant personality changes may emerge and affected individuals need extensive help with customary daily activities. At this stage, individuals may:

• Lose most awareness of recent experiences and events as well as of their surroundings

• Recollect their personal history imperfectly, although they generally recall their own name

• Occasionally forget the name of their spouse or primary caregiver but generally can distinguish familiar from unfamiliar faces

• Need help getting dressed properly; without supervision, may make such errors as putting pajamas over daytime clothes or shoes on wrong feet

• Experience disruption of their normal sleep/waking cycle

• Need help with handling details of toileting (flushing toilet, wiping and disposing of tissue properly)

• Have increasing episodes of urinary or fecal incontinence

• Experience significant personality changes and behavioral symptoms, including suspiciousness and delusions (for example, believing that their caregiver is an impostor); hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not really there); or compulsive, repetitive behaviors such as hand-wringing or tissue shredding

• Tend to wander and become lost

Keep in mind that every person is different, so some of these symptoms may not be as severe, I will say that my Dad did have quite a few of these symptoms and they did seem to progress rather rapidly.  Of course during this stage my Dad had a laundry list of other medical conditions, he had renal failure, and his kidneys were not so great.  You see along with AD he was a long time suffered of the gout and polycythemia which he took various medications for many years, thus causing his liver and kidneys to start failing.  So consult with your doctor about medications for pre-existing conditions and see if they are needed at this stage of AD.  Also, my recommendation to many terminal illness families is to go ahead and look into some sort of home health care providers (if you want to keep them at home).  These services, whether it is hospice or private care givers, will help the primary care giver to get some sort of relief and much needed help.  I'm not saying that you need to call them right away, but at least be aware of the services in your area.  And most important, see a lawyer and get necessary paperwork in place, if you haven't already.  Living wills, power of attorneys, etc are several of the documents that you can discuss with your lawyer.  Be prepared.  

Picture of the Day (can anyone guess what these are??)

Blessings,

Magnolia

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So let's see, what did I not do this past week. I did not go and have my nails done again instead of fixing my chipped nail, that would be excessive and a total waste of money. I most certainly would not suggest to my loving husband that we could just go to Publix Grocery store Saturday night and pick up dessert for Valentine's Day, no not me, I would have baked a cake or already picked something up at the bakery. And I most certainly did not try on a formal dress and tell hubby that I would have to think about the dress because I thought that it might show a few too many bumps on my back-end, even though the truth is that it's a stunning dress and makes me look thin but it's red for goodness sake and bound to garner attention. I would not come up with some crazy excuse like that. And I would never call my oldest niece a "knothead" for something goofy she did over the weekend, I'm a tender loving aunt and would only say nice things to her. Well that's about it for me. What about you??? let us all know what you would never in a million years do.

Blessings,

Magnolia