Retirement……LOVE IT!

DEMENTIA….

Demeaning, devilish disease that degrades its victims….

Diabolically erodes a person’s ability to recall memories and process incoming and outgoing information….

Daily it wreaks havoc in the life of the individual as well as the lives of all who love and care for the person with the disease….

Delusional visions and disconnected conversations dominate the days….

Detestable anxiety and ominous nightmares have dominion in the darkness of night….

Despicable is the only way to describe its effect….

Damn Dementia!

I truly DETEST what you’ve done to my mother!!

My precious 81 year old mother was diagnosed with mild subcortical dementia mid-June, 2013. August 6, 2013, she became very ill and was eventually diagnosed with West Nile virus.  The virus attacked her muscles and worsened the dementia tenfold.  She has needed 24 hour care ever since.  It has been a trying eight months, to say the least.  My 83 year old dad has managed quite well taking care of mom with minimal assistance from Visiting Angels and my two sisters and myself.  However, around the second week of March, my sisters and I noticed our father’s health declining.  We had decided last October when we brought mom home, that if daddy’s health began to suffer as a result of the constant care he was giving mom, we would have to move mom to a skilled nursing facility.  We agonized over this decision, but we knew it was best. We moved mom on March 21st, and I stayed with dad for the following week (my sisters had already scheduled their vacations for the week of March 24th).  My dad was very sad at first, but he has gotten some much needed rest, has worked out his “routine,” and visits mom every afternoon.  He is doing so much better now.  It was the ABSOLUTELY HARDEST thing I/we have ever done.  Once I got home and rested up a bit, I kept thinking about how much I hated this disease called Dementia.  Hence, I wrote this poem as a way of expressing my feelings and frustrations.