Kevin's Watch

ouchies 😱

Here’s some magical fairy 🧚��♀� dust 🧚��♀� 🧚��♀�🧚��♀�🧚��♀�🧚��♀�🌈🌼🧚��♀�

Just a little left over sparkle I had lying around … you’re welcome 😉😛

Right, update on the update in the update thread.

As for me, got the keys to my new place today, so moving starts.

Beware the perils of materialism, a few more than 25 of my moving boxes contain nothing but books.

Movers arrive on Wed to pick up furniture and boxes. Not sure when my internet connection will be up and running, but shouldn't be more than a few days after that. (I really hope.)

So should be back to normal (insofar as that means anything) within a week or so. (ish).

--A

Rabbit!
Rabbit!!
Rabbit!!!

Avatar wrote:Right, update on the update in the update thread.

As for me, got the keys to my new place today, so moving starts.

Beware the perils of materialism, a few more than 25 of my moving boxes contain nothing but books.

Movers arrive on Wed to pick up furniture and boxes. Not sure when my internet connection will be up and running, but shouldn't be more than a few days after that. (I really hope.)

So should be back to normal (insofar as that means anything) within a week or so. (ish).

--A

I’m dreading moving again ~ we’ve got 7 large bookcases filled to overflowing ~ and I threw out all of our law books ~ cuz that was a sizeable chunk we’re not likely to ever use again,
.

Most are my fantasy/sci-fi/fiction books of which we have heaps ~ my husband had the nerve to tell me to throw them out!!! I’m sorry sir, that’s NOT how you treat best friends!

We have several book cases of military history books ~ and there’s no way any of them are going to get tossed.

Savor Dam wrote:Dam-et was implanted in 1994 at about 15 months. He was one of the first three children implanted in the US, with a specialist from the UK doing all three children on the same day.

It has worked very well for him.

Oh I’m worried that Riley might be too old ~ the doctor did say she is probably too old for it to help her.

Sky, the past cannot be undone. Riley is dealing with multiple challenges at a very young age. Her parents and extended family (including you) are adjusting to a lot of expectation shifts.

Implantation earlier may have been better, but now is far better than later...and this is when the opportunity came. Glad was seized.

Hearing and language are closely related topics, but have big differences. Even in the absence of hearing, a tot can learn sign language; hopefully Riley has been exposed to this and may have started building a vocabulary to communicate with others. The more foundation for language that has been established, the more her CI can help her develop auditory-verbal skills.

Only hearing will allow her the voices of her parents, surf, critter-calls, birdsong, music, etc. That is a realm the CI will open for her; do not underestimate it!

[truncating long perseveration about raising a willful child who is deaf and not reluctant to use their disability]

Almost thirty years later, Dam-et is a self-supporting / self-employed adult and passes as hearing...unless he wants to leverage his disability.

Deafness aside, he is far from neurotypical...but he comes by that legitimately.

My ex-wife had a Cochlear implant done when she was about 30 years old and she adjusted to it well. She had very little hearing in both ears and wore hearing aids in both. Her hearing in one ear finally just went away one day and we looked into the implants and really its a choice of being able to hear or not. Thankfully she did because a few months later the hearing in her other ear went away totally so she would have been 100% deaf had it not been for the implant.

Since she dealt with hearing issues her entire life she could read lips and she could use sign language fluently. That sounds good on the surface but its rare to run into someone who is not deaf (or has a deaf relative) that knows sign language.

All that to say that while I agree that earlier is probably better, being able to hear is worth it at any age.

SoulBiter wrote:My ex-wife had a Cochlear implant done when she was about 30 years old and she adjusted to it well. She had very little hearing in both ears and wore hearing aids in both. Her hearing in one ear finally just went away one day and we looked into the implants and really its a choice of being able to hear or not. Thankfully she did because a few months later the hearing in her other ear went away totally so she would have been 100% deaf had it not been for the implant.

Since she dealt with hearing issues her entire life she could read lips and she could use sign language fluently. That sounds good on the surface but its rare to run into someone who is not deaf (or has a deaf relative) that knows sign language.

All that to say that while I agree that earlier is probably better, being able to hear is worth it at any age.

wow that is so heartening to read .. Riley my granddaughter is 5yo .. so a lot younger than when your wife got cochlear implants at 30.

She is learning sign and my son is amazing ... he was teaching the Chid Care Centre she was attending .. so they can communicate with Riley.

The Centre actually used riley to acquire additional grant funding to support her cuz of her vision, hearing and speech issues. They didn't actually do anything to support her however .. and one day my son went to collect Riley from Child Care and she was seated by herself inside in a corner. Alex asked why she was not with the other kids outside .. they said cuz we don't know how to deal with her!!

Alex right there and then said he would teach the staff ... and he asked what about the kids ... and they said they didn't know how to communicate with her so he ran day classes with the kiddos too.

We have to teach her as much sign as possible before she loses her sight completely.

It is a priority for Alex, Kat and us .. we are also learning but we aren't at all competent at this stage. I visit Alex and family in April so will have to lift my game. Though Riley has always been non-verbal ... she has never had any trouble communicating with me but that is going to change as her signing advances.

Tired. Had a busy evening talking to all kinds of people yesterday at the basketball club where I'm a board member. Woke up at 3 AM and my mind immediately started churning. couldn't sleep for 2 hours.

The perils of responsibility.

--A

My wife's dad (93 this year) has really struggled this year. His dementia is off the rails and he is now in Hospice. For about a month he has been living in some past memories and has not been with us... and not eating and drinking much. Today for the first time in over a month, he recognized my wife and asked where he was. He might be lucid for a few hours, a day, a week, and then again we may go over there this evening and he is fishing or working on some past project. Yesterday he told me the "stringer" (possibly he was working on stairs or a window) was not straight and the nail was bent. He said he dropped a nail behind the workbench and needed to get it.

It's sad to watch that and to see him decline so fast.

Spiral Jacobs wrote: ↑ Tired. Had a busy evening talking to all kinds of people yesterday at the basketball club where I'm a board member. Woke up at 3 AM and my mind immediately started churning. couldn't sleep for 2 hours.

That sounds stressful … hope it gets lighter. “Heavy IS the burden of responsibility” ~ take rest as often as possible, wherever possible.

Soulbiter…

That’s really tough. Hope you and your family possess all the strength you need to navigate these difficulties ~ a hard time in all of your lives in consequence of your father-inlaws alzheimers.

I read a little handout for family of dementia patients and it said to go along with wherever they are mentally, emotionally. I don’t think many people wouldn’t automatically do this or argue against family members who mis-cited facts etc.

My mother in law had alzheimers and she used to say the oddest things ~ but once she was no longer able to be left alone (for her own & others safety) she seemed to embrace a fantasy existence that gave her immense joy.

Yeah, sorry to hear SB. It's one of the worst things for loved ones to have to see, although on the whole the sufferers themselves don't tend to seem too troubled for the most part.

Sterkte.

--A

Yeah its hard on the family. He seems to roll with it pretty well. I always think in his time of lucidity that he will be scared because he wakes up somewhere he doesn't expect. My wife told him he was in rehab rather than hospice when she talked to him yesterday. Its been quite a journey over the last couple of years. When he was still in his house he would have episodes where he wandered down the street with his walker to go to Kroger (which is 2 miles away, mainly to get stamps because he ran out). Then he called 911 and when the police got there he told them that he was waiting on someone to take him home (he was in his home of over 50 years) and said it was uncanny how this place looked so much like his.

Last June we took him to assisted living and he seemed to be settling in there pretty well until late December 2022 he had a total break with reality, then decided he was leaving in the middle of the night and fell and busted his head open. Off to the hospital, where after a week he was also diagnosed with Pneumonia. He told us he was kidnapped and driven all over town (that was the EMT's getting him and taking him downtown to the Hospital) and you couldnt convince him otherwise. Again we got him stabilized and back to Assisted living.... a few weeks later, total break from reality, yelling in the middle of the night disturbing the other residents.... so they called 911 and he was taken to the hospital and stabilized again, but never attached to reality again and wouldnt speak (just mumbled), and wouldnt eat or drink. So then it was off to Hospice where he is now.

Sky, yes we dont argue with his reality. We roll with what he says to an extent. Mostly he cant get out of bed and when he is reliving a past time, he moves his hands and legs as he does. So if he is riding a bike, his legs move to peddle. If he is fishing, you can see he is holding an imaginary fishing pole and casting and reeling....

Trevs mum was convinced her husband killed himself ~ he didn’t he died of heart failure and a raft of other things. I know it used to pain Trev to hear his mum talk of his father like that.

In actuality her uncle killed himself by walking into the ocean and not returning.

It’s sooo hard and I genuinely feel for you and your family ~ there’s a reason they call it “the long goodbye”. It’s a cruel and unforgiving condition.

A dear friend lost his wife to dimentia a few years back ~ it affects every organ in the body beginning with the brain or maybe it all just a broader impact of neurological dystrophy ~ not a dr, don’t know too much about it.

But her organs slowly started shutting down.

We are lucky Nanny went reasonably quickly a’s unbeknownst to everyone she was riddled with cancer/pancreas, bowel and lung.

Sending love and much, much strength for what it’s worth ~ you’ve always got ears here who want to support you however we can

It won't be long now.... Sunday he was lucid and we talked about final four in basketball and Reds opening of day of baseball. Today he is oxygen and barely breathing. We will stay here with him until he is gone.

All the best to you SB and your family

Thinking of y'all.

--A

He passed at 2AM surrounded by family. Under the best of circumstances its difficult to watch someone taking their last breaths and deteriorating into a corpse right in front of you. It was a blessing to everyone when he was gone. Those last hours are horrid.