Alzheimer's, Dementia, Revisiting Life, Loss of Family, Lupus Flares, A Horrid Headache and Upset Stomach, stressed, & needing to FEEL BETTER!

I received my really nice Shirt, my wrist bands and my pin for my jackets etc. yesterfay from the Alzheimer's Association. As soon as I get dressed and wear it, I will post a photo, with it on. I have added "Dementia/Alzheimer's" to my advocacy plans and I will also be adding my own personal story about my Mom, and just how quickly this dreadful disease took her from just being a "normal" 80 year old, to almost a toddler/infant within months. I know over the past couple of years, I saw and talked about her "forgetting" thin

Wasp Sting turning to "infection", dealing with "overload" of paperwork after Mom's passing away, my own health issues, ankles still not well & so much more....

I've been "knee-deep" in things to do... I feel like I am s slow as a turtle these days. I've just now began to realize how much needs o be handled now, from the house, to car, and paperwork. I thought my hands were overfull just taking care of Mom while she was here, but I think I am on more "overload" than I was just a few weeks ago. My "to-do"list gets longer each day, and my "energy" and ability to "get er done" seems to be somewhere lost between the rock and a hard spot... 

Anyway, I am around, just involved in trying to get everything taken care of, and trying to keep this house half way clean. and the lawn needs to be mowed and it appears my neighbor may be gone on vacation or something. I've not seen him in over a week, and I noticed they had all of their blinds down... and his car has not moved in a few days either, so when it is as tall as it is now, plus with me STILL REELING from whatever the hell is going on with me, I cannot stand the sun to even for a moment to be on my skin... I can't really "explain" it, but after all of the burning, itching so severe it almost drove me nuts, hurting, swelling mess with the Wasp stinging me then the stinger in my arms for about 24 hours, before I realized that is what was in the little hole in my arm. But as I "tried" not to scratch it, but it looks like either I have had the "shingles" just looking at the forearm all over, and my skin almost appears as if the 1st or 2nd layer of skin was "burned off"... it is very strange... and most of it I believe is where I was rubbing it, or trying to rub like a soft cloth over it, anything due to that burning and itching... so now I do wonder if this was all the sting, OR did it turn into shingles? 

I have had now this is the 3rd time, a rash that appears almost like shingles. The others were not as bad, but they also burned and itched like crazy. So, between that, and my ankles are still not the best. My right one swells up still a great deal, if I am up and on the move... but right now I don't have time again to stay off my feet and get back on the sofa, then I feel like I really am falling behind. There is something else that I wanted to share, and I hope it does not "weird" anyone out. It could be this happens, for we are definitely "creatures of habit"... but about a week ago, I began to have these s"instant" thoughts, Gosh, I need to "call Mom", or I need to go over and check on her... it has happened now several times, sometimes more than once, if I think of something that she may have wanted to know etc... so I know it kind of hit me as "strange"... yet like anything we repeat in our daily lives, it tends to become "automatic" in life. If we get the mail everyday at 4PM, then even on a holiday, many of us probably go and look for our mail... and then find it comical that it is a "holiday" dummy.... I can say, although as "strange" as it feels, it's not a "bad" kind of strange, it is just something that I've never experienced before... 

That house is beginning to look much better inside. Gosh, talk about a "pack rat"... now I know where ALL OF THOSE PRESENTS FOR BIRTHDAY'S, MOTHER'S DAY, XMAS etc went! She has packed, packed and repacked stuff over and over again... so there were several things over there that belonged to my Granny Svehlak, and much of that is crystal bowls and so forth. So, I know there will be some things that will remain, to be passed down, etc... to my son and daughter, and my Grandkids... many "keepsakes" so just like myself, Granny always made Homemade Cookies, and she had a special jar that I loved all my life, and when she passed away, I asked if I could have it, and I have it sitting in my stands that have glass doors on them, with some other things from the family etc... Then, I am still having heck with being nauseated and not feeling "great"... I am sure the heat, plus the Lupus Flare, plus the antibiotics, and all of the stress from the past several weeks, really months, is catching up to me. My neighbor did say that there is a "stomach virus" going around here in town, and hell that is the last thing I need! As I continue this "journey" through paperwork, redoing floors, painting, and making decisions on many things, your thoughts, well wishes and prayers are definitely still needed... 

I "thought" I would almost be at the place to go ahead with my neck surgery, but as it is right now, I have to get over everything else first... plus that stupid "motion disorder" and it also can cause these "audible noises" where I think I "hear" someone with the "news" on television, or certain things just "set off" this strange mess. When it 1st happened just after moving back to TX, I was terrified... but myself, my Mom, my Granny and hers was really bad, and my daughter all have it.... it is a type of vertigo, and of course that effects the inner most ear, so when the "crystals" form, then you can have all types of motion sickness, and like me, it is like I can hear "Channel 5 News" or something off in the background... I've been through all types of tests, because I also continue to have double vision. If I don't have my glasses on (and it is over due time for a new script I think) which have the special "prism" in them, and it "deters" the double vision. Anyway, here is a bit of an update... I feel I need to be moving a million miles an hour (my brain is), but my body is just not cooperating... Hugs to all and again I appreciate your thoughts, well wishes and prayers.... Rhia

Pics of my Granny and Grandfather (my Mom's parents) then a pic of ALL of my Granny's sisters, and cousins, and all of the huge family. Abs as promised, the "Ye Old Inn" matchbooks like brand new, plus I "think" the sale and pepper shakers may have cam from there... I believe it was a "give-a-way" of something ...then the lamb and the diaper pin! The lamb was given to me BEFORE I was born! And I have not seen a diaper pin in ages... do they even make cloth diapers anymore and diaper pins???

Fight ALZ! "The Longest Day" Brain Health, Cementia and Alzheimer's June 20th and the Month of June

http://www.alz.org/abam/#goPurple

TODAY JUNE 29TH, THE LONGEST DAY! CHANGE YOUR LOOK TO:

 #GOPURPLE #ENDALZ

I AM A voice for my mom, WHO JUST PASSED AWAY A WEEK AGO LAST THURSDAY OF ONE OF THE MANY HORRID DISEASES OF DEMENTIA! I Also watched her parents, both of my Grandparents suffer from these diseases, and I am concerned not for just myself, but my kids, their kids, and the generations to come... of ALL families... we NEED to END ALZ!

June 20th - "The Longest Day" Sprading Awareness about Alzhiemer's, brain health and the Alzheimer Foundation

 http://www.alz.org/greaterdallas/

Local Dallas Chapter for the ALZ.org

Turn your World Purple on June 20th and the Month of June for Alzheimer's Awareness!

http://www.alz.org/abam/#goPurple

Dementia, Alzheimer's, "A Quilt to Remember", getting back to somewhat of a normal, life, Advocacy work, & making a "Quilt Block" in Memory of my Mom & both Grandparents

Alzheimer's, Dementia, Quilt to Remember,Mom, my Grandparents, and for our generations to follow


YES! IT is 4:30AM and I am UP!

 I have not been able to sleep again in a couple of days. I am not sure if it is just being "down" during the day with my ankle, or feeling a bit "edgy" that I am NOT up and doing some of the things I need to be doing. Both pups have also been restless, especially tonight. In fact the little one my Peanut Holy Terrier, :) was a bit sick to his tummy. But, that pup will EAT ANYTHING! I have to constantly keep a watch on him...because if he can get his paws on it, it's going in his mouth, and more than likely he will eat it. I hope it is a "puppy thing" for I know my Tazzy did that when she was little. But after she turned about a year old, she got out of that picking it any and everything in her mouth. Plus he CHEWS on everything! My other two did, some, also when they were in their first 6 to 9 months, but after that, they began to ONLY CHEW on what they were supposed to. I hope Peanut does the same. But he is definitely, "a pup of a different color" for sure...LOL! Stubborn as a Mule, yet he is coming out of that a little now. He also thinks my hands are "chew toys"...so we have really been working on NOT "chewing, nipping" at Mom's hands and on Bub's ears... They seem to get along good, but there are times since Bub's is older, he gets enough, so he puts Peanut "in his place"... he never hurts him, he just gives him this "look", and Peanut KNOWS to BACK OFF playing for now... :)

They both like me to sign to them, and I did finally get Peanut a "song" I made up, plus he already is getting a couple of nicknames, I catch myself calling him "Pea-knuckle" (spelling like the game Pinochle" - or LOL something I bit "off" color, since he was neutered, I call him "Peanut-less" at times.... LMAO! Well, believe me ALL of them have had several names and always learned that by either that name, OR my TONE or BOTH, either things were good, or they had done something "not so good".... just like kids, these fur-babies, seem although at times to continue to be fur-toddler's most of their lives... They have really been "trooper" though.

Through all of this with my Mom, I had to be in and out so much here at the house with them, and that was something they have not been used to, I know there were days they both could not wait for me to "cling" the keys and open the doors and both standing, jumping, barking, and crying for joy that "Mom is finally HOME"! So, it has been a difficult time for them, a totally weird schedule, and not our "normal routine", although I tried to give us "our time" each evening together... and then I know they have sensed me being upset, in a turmoil, and also both of them especially Bub's knows when I am not well myself, and it is almost like he "watches" over me, sitting beside me, and even at times he will be there, and he will just let out this kind of almost a "cry" wanting me to "sit down" with them, and be still for a little while. So, having me "home" the last couple of days to themselves more or less, and spending time down with my ankles, they have been in heaven right beside me.


Okay... now to another reason for this POST, I want to do a "quilt piece" for the "Quilt to Remember" tour that is going around the nation in honor of those who have had these horrid diseases of Dementia, and have taken away their minds, in so many different ways, time frames, and so forth. I had been an advocate already in many ways for the Alzheimer's Association but I had forgotten about the quilt. So, when I wan in getting information on where to donate in honor of a loved one etc, or in memory of someone, I saw that website about the quilt.

Since both of my maternal Grandparents had some form of Alzheimer's and Dementia, and now my Mom, I want to do a quilt piece to go with this quilt around the country. I've submitted my "story" and asked for instructions about the quilt block, which for an individual is 4 feet by 4 feet.

Since my Grandmother made MANY quilts completely BY HAND, not one machine stitch in them, and I have also been able to do a quilt, and have actually a oversized, probably King sized almost top finished for a quilt, I decided what better way to "give back" and also hope to help to find the reasons for these horrid, mind taking diseases, and give hope that we find reasons, find more help, have more research, find a cure, or find out what we can do to completely STOP some of these types of dementia's. I am enclosing the "link" here for this project. I have several ideas already and really already have materials etc, (some I found over at Mom's, and I think it is still good enough to use in the quilt) and am waiting to hear back on details about the quilt block and getting it to them -

http://www.alzquilt.org/

Here are a few example of blocks made by people for the "Quilt to Remember"

Created by Colleen Anderson,
Fargo, ND,
in honor of her mother, Patricia Kelso

 Created by Phyllis Bednarek,
Woodridge, IL,
in memory of her mother, Mary Estelle Ruppert 

 

Created by Bernadette Discon,
Jackson, NJ,
in memory of her husband, James Russell Discon

Created by Kimberly Fondaw,
Grand Rivers, KY,
in memory of her mother, Geraldine M. Brown 

ALL of these are from the website about the quilt! Plus there are many, many more that give me some wonderful ideas for doing one in memory of my Mom. 

Wear Blue! BY CURE CLICK FOR MEN'S HEALTH!

WITH FATHER'S DAY COMING, and for ALL of our Guys out there, many who don't like going to doctor's, and so forth, yet YOUR health is just as important as women's... so

Wear Blue for Men's Health Day


#SHOWUSYOURBLUE

June 17 is #WearBlue Day to celebrate Men's Health Week! Support education about regular health checkups, testicular cancer, prostate cancer, and other men's health issues. Learn more about it here. #ShowUsYourBlue #CureClick http://curec.lk/1UfSZtP