Man dementia is a bad trip

If I'm not mistaken, around here none of the assisted living places take low-income people at all, only the skilled nursing facilities. Which is too bad, lots of people would do okay or even fine with assisted living only.
Highly agree! And there would be a cost savings. But they don't look at it that way. They will pay out the money for long term care. Those assisted living that are all private pay are big money makers.
 

and I can't remember anyone asking - " are you the only one half -sane there or any others you can chat aimicably with ?" - scuse prying - I call it concerned neighbour?
 
and I can't remember anyone asking - " are you the only one half -sane there or any others you can chat aimicably with ?" - scuse prying - I call it concerned neighbour?
I'm going to answer several questions at once yes I'm only sane when the wind blows from the north all other times I'm crazy as a loon. No, I strive to be lucid and sane at all times, I have brain games I play to keep the juices percolating. I share a room, I'd love a private room but can't afford one so I use diplomacy and respect to keep things peaceful. My roomie takes a sleeping pill at about 9:00 so I just head off to bed when he does, but, I get up early and head to the dining room for coffee and to find out if the world is on the verge of a breakdown.

Some very challenging people live here, but I can get away from them if things get too crazy heavy, and to bend the politics rule I come down to the dining room to listen to progressive podcasts and drink coffee while people are sleeping. No, no one is on ignore I shut down and start early, all in all, I'm in a good place, I'd love to have my own apartment maybe with all the boomers retiring they'll build some cross-your fingers on that though, they'll probably build a bunch of high priced condos and leave us old grasshoppers to die off when it gets cold. Anyway, I'm getting a cup of coffee and filling up on my daily dose of sanity talk to everyone later.
 
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I don't know if you like to read Rick, but if you do you might enjoy this. I read it with my book club last year (all of us seniors) and while it was a little sad in places, it was also funny and heart warming. It's about a man in your situation, dealing with what you've just described, but also making a few friends and occasionally causing a little bit of trouble for the sake of The Good. ;)
 
What do you want us to do, VintageBetter? Kidnap them? Take them home with us? Please tell us what we should do! Homelessness is what churches and charities are for.
This is why I didn't go into Public Policy work. I have plenty of ideas, but in PP, everything has to be decided by committee.

Then when one committee makes a proposal to buy Lot Y over there off of Main St. and build 300 units, 20% of which are for 55+ only, then that goes to another committee, the City Beautification committee. Then the full city council has to approve it. Then, in some states, there's more committees.

THEN it has to meet all regulations. That takes YEARS in many parts of my state.

In the meantime, the low income Senior numbers have increased by 20% so now these 60 units are for 72 low-income Seniors in the region and the newspaper is reporting that there's gonna be a lottery for the units and 12 grandmas are going to LOSE out.

Then the news reports, "Nasty PP people, why didn't they plan more for all these grandmas!?" But the reporters may not know that the whole building approval process was created years ago, often by legislators who are fat and happy now, rich and retired.

They get elected, make the goofiest of laws, take their money and leave. It's all to prop-up real estate prices. Supply and demand. Not enough apartments for all who want them, so that drives rents up.

The legislators could be like bartenders and make laws that say, "You've drunk enough RE investors, we're gong to cut you off a bit", but they won't. It's like they are on auto-pilot. They cannot even conceive of a city with say, $1,000 a month 1-bedroom apartments.
 
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I don't know if you like to read Rick, but if you do you might enjoy this. I read it with my book club last year (all of us seniors) and while it was a little sad in places, it was also funny and heart warming. It's about a man in your situation, dealing with what you've just described, but also making a few friends and occasionally causing a little bit of trouble for the sake of The Good. ;)
This sounds like an interesting book. I think I'll read it. Thanks for suggesting it.
 
I'm going to answer several questions at once yes I'm only sane when the wind blows from the north all other times I'm crazy as a loon. No, I strive to be lucid and sane at all times, I have brain games I play to keep the juices percolating. I share a room, I'd love a private room but can't afford one so I use diplomacy and respect to keep things peaceful. My roomie takes a sleeping pill at about 9:00 so I just head off to bed when he does, but, I get up early and head to the dining room for coffee and to find out if the world is on the verge of a breakdown.

Some very challenging people live here, but I can get away from them if things get too crazy heavy, and to bend the politics rule I come down to the dining room to listen to progressive podcasts and drink coffee while people are sleeping. No, no one is on ignore I shut down and start early, all in all, I'm in a good place, I'd love to have my own apartment maybe with all the boomers retiring they'll build some cross-your fingers on that though, they'll probably build a bunch of high priced condos and leave us old grasshoppers to die off when it gets cold. Anyway, I'm getting a cup of coffee and filling up on my daily dose of sanity talk to everyone later.
keep shootin from the hips bud -sounds reasonable so far? beats the streets heh?
 
@TheOtherRick
I,ve been thinking... that you actually made a smart decision, to take the opportunity you had, to go there.

As difficult a decision as it possibly was, and not perfect,
But it was not the worst option, and it seems to me that it's an okay place, to call home.
I hope I will find something as okay as that, when I need to. It's not easy to find.

I'm glad you did.
 
My Best friends, childhood sweethearts, a life together. He is alone now, she passed in April.
One day 2 years ago she wandered into my garage. I asked her if she was lost, she said, yes.
I asked her if she was frightened, she said, yes. I asked her if she wanted to be with her husband.
She said, yes. I asked her to take my arm and I would take her back home to her husband. She spoke,
yes. The rest of the time walking a couple hundred yards back to her husband all she talked was
unintelligible gibberish. The fear she lived with ? Most likely no intelligent answer would cover it.

I suppose she could respond to specific questions of her past? She walked away from their Lake home
3 times that I know of. Once the neighbors were around her on the street. Once her husband found her with
his pickup. He had to keep her in their 365-day home with constant surveillance. Their lives together ruined
and only 65 ish. One cannot begin to absorb over $10,000 a month for a care facility. The Costs are enormous.
 
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It's more than a "challenge." My partner was diagnosed a few years ago and we are doing as well as possible for as long as possible..
It's also a learning experience.

The only "good" thing can be that if she has a temporary.. "off day" ..I can count on her forgetting the "reason" in a couple hours.
Kinda funny, but NOT.

Fortunately, the condition is not at a severe stage.
Hopefully, I won't have to add "yet" to that sentence.
I've always been a bit talented in managing different people and personalities.
I find myself doing that daily.

Difficult road but driveable. :)
 
Dementia can set in fast. It's not just about family history. Know someone sick in bed for 4 months. It was that last month of lying down doing nothing that allowed the dementia set it. Activity/blood flow important to delay or lessens affects. They seem to have lost short term memory. The farther back the better the memory. Their memory of the last year off .

The best thing is make sure finances are in order good or bad so a social worker can help one shop for a nursing home, facility etc of their chosing. Once it's full blown the state or family may declare the patient incompetent and decisions should be made for them.
 
Here's some good news:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/olive-oil-improves-brain-health


As a person of Italian descent I take a tablespoon of olive oil every day.

From what I've read the modern diet consists too heavily on Omega 6 fatty acids and too little omega 3 (olive oil). I try to use olive oil whenever possible and if I should make something like garlic butter I use half olive oil along with the butter. It makes me feel better and it might actually be doing some good.
 
Luckily, a few years after being widowed, I opted for "senior dating" and found a partner who was a bit "unconventional" and had a sense of humor that matches mine quite nicely.
It was a chore to find someone like that and it was good, as now, even with some dementia we can still enjoy joking and other activities that aren't all that common (from what I've seen) in a whole lot of people.
That helps a lot. :)
 
we are hearing some of the inbetween stories and leading up to stories and then just getting along ones which are not always readily available - it helps us all eventually? thanks
 
yea as thy docs always accurately say the long term memories are always the best and best saved - I can write volumes of my life up to most recent - but ask me about yesterdays events and they can be hazy- I have written reminders hanging from my pc desk - they wave magically in the breeze of the ceiling fan - which reminds me - should really turn it off at night now we are in the cool season?
 


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