Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Awakening


My name is Kathy, and this blog is about my mother and our family's journey with with her through Alzheimer's Disease. Let me tell you, we're only a few months into it, and it's truly a trip.

I have three brothers who are at present doing what they can to step up and help with mom's daily living, and I am planning to retire from my job at the University at Buffalo in order to move back to Meadville PA to take my part. I'm sorry to lose the job, I enjoy what I do at UB. I'm sorry, too, to sell my sweet little condo where I've been content for many years. But I'm blessed to be able to do these things so that I can help my mom walk this difficult path.

Early in 2009, my brothers and I began to notice that mom was a little "off". She was forgetting where she had put her purse/keys/shoes/gloves/head. Other signs appeared gradually. She started to opt out of hosting family gatherings. Her cooking skills diminished. She had minor a fender bender. Then another. And finally the one that led to her diagnosis. I got the story secondhand from my brother that she had bumped into another car and then left the scene. The police were called by a witness and they caught up with her at another location. Shortly after that, brother Tom made an appointment with her to see her physician, who did some light testing, made a referral to a neurologist, and told her that she shouldn't continue to drive. More tomorrow!

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