Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Year that things changed
It's been over a year and a half since I published "Happy New Year" 2017. Many things have happened since then.
In late May of 2017, I entered assisted living. Nancy was absolutely exhausted taking care of me and we talked about alternatives. We couldn't afford 24 hour care for me at home, so the only viable alternative was to move into assisted living. We found a brand new assisted living facility about 18 minutes from our house. It looked like the Ritz. I moved in and I couldn't sleep. Part of that was the transition from home to a new place; part of it was that the med techs could not get my medication straight. Nancy had several meetings with the head of nursing, but, to no avail. On the first Saturday morning after I had moved in on Monday, I had hallucinations and ran down the hall yelling "fire", ripped a painting off the wall in the hall, broke the frame, and I "easy cheesed" my kitchenette and the baseball wreath on my door. I also threatened a care giver. Needless to say, this did not go over well with the powers that be, so I had to move. I also had to have a caregiver with me at night until I moved. It took 2 weeks to find another facility. Nancy and LauraJane had visited about 8 places before settling on the second facility. The care there, especially at night, was almost non-existent, so Nancy paid a caregiver to be there for 12 hours during the night.
In the fall of 2017, they found that a new facility was being built 8 minutes from Laura Jane's house.
They first visited it, liked it, and took me there to look around. The head of nursing was very knowledgeable about Parkinson's Disease. We were very honest about the frequency of my falls and my need for special care during the night. They were not effected by that at all. I moved in on January 30, 2018. I was their first resident. The staff here is excellent-very competent and very caring. The place is beautiful, my room is very nice, so I am being well cared for. Nancy comes every day to visit.
When we found out about a new facility being built so close to Laura Jane's house, She and her husband, Seth invited Nancy to move in with them. We needed to sell the house we had bought when we first came to Virginia. It was way too big for one person (5000 square feet) and too expensive to maintain. We sold the house and part of the proceeds went to build an addition to their house. Nancy loves her space and is happy there.
My neurologist, Dr. Falconer, took me off the Nilotinib in June of 2017. He felt that the medication was not doing any thing for me any more. I guess my Parkinson's Disease had progressed to the place where the medication was no longer effective. I didn't change any after the medication was removed, so I think that was a good change.
Even with all the changes that have taken place during the past year, we have experienced many blessings. We are so thankful for them.
Until the next time, I hope you are doing well and are happy. I am becoming weaker, but am still walking with a special walker for Parkinson's Disease patients- the u-step. It helps. My wife of 44 years is still an incredible advocate for me. Life is still good, not great! Take care of yourselves.
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