Alzheimer's Diary: Catching Up

I haven't posted anything on Alzheimer's since Oct 31, 2007. There's no way I'll be able to catch up so I'll start from now.

I didn't feel the assisted living facility could handle the final stages of Abe's care so last January I moved him to a nursing home. He's well-cared for, the nursing staff is right there with him and the care giver training program appears to be more in tune with the needs of AD sufferers than the for-profit facility where he was.

The journey continues with no end in sight. I requested that the Alz Association create a small Grief Group and it did. Much better for me than the larger 12-20 person group.

I stopped writing about Alz's (though I continued in my handwritten diary) because I was completely overwhelmed by involvement with the disease. I needed to get back to work on my academic research and writing. I've stayed away from making poems because Abe and Alzheimer's contain as much poetry as I can take in a day. I'm already down to the bones.

I've cut out most readings, there's just so much energy, but hope to get to the Roethke reading at UW tonight. Mary Jo Salter and Brad Leithauser are reading and I know nothing of their work. Besides the phone keeps ringing with: "Are you going?" so I better get myself together. I planned not to go to the home today anyway...