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Captain so sorry to hear Edna's fading...I know that's hard on you. Hugs...
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This is so hard, watching our loved ones with all the age related difficulties. I am noticing too, that new problems and symptoms pop up about every two to three weeks and then seem to be here to stay. I am always worried about more problems that cannot be solved or easily managed.
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It's heartbreaking to see our loved ones suffering. Prayers for everyone.
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on the lighter side... when I helped her to the bathroom earlier and pulled her sweat pants down, about 9 bite size chocolate candies fell out.... she loves her chocolate!
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Yes Cap, I can totally understand and agree. Truly, this is no way to live life. Personally, I hate it with every fiber of my being. Sorry about you beloved Edna Bob... are you going to be okay when all is said and done?

Susan (and anyone else near this stage) at first the changes were subtle, like bathroom tissue and hoarding napkins, forgetting names, loved ones and what happened a few minutes ago, after that it all seems to progress so much faster it's scary.

Mom's been very unusual today... well, it started last night. She would not sleep. Kept talking all night to people. Today she's been calling names I haven't heard in years. Talked about daddy at Wal-Mart waiting? Moaning and waving her arms while she took a 5 minutes semi awake nap. This is scaring the hell out of me. She eats a semi normal amount for an elderly woman... she drinks a lot of juice, water, my healthy shakes and ensure. Maybe it's because she's just so tired from her marathon last night? :( oh, her skin seems to be a lot colder than normal even with the heater in front of her plus her blanket. Jesus Lord have mercy... it's not been 2 years since I held my dad when he passed, I don't think I can do this again.

Sorry... not trying to be so down, I am just so tired and need a good night of solid sleep without listening ( if you understand what I mean)... just quiet.

ha, my mother has been talking to the tv and thinking it's talking to her for many months now... so much so we watch a lot of very G rated Disney movies and old westerns which she loves.
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edna is slowly fading away from dementia . her brain is lucid and still very sweet but her brain will not command her organs for much longer .
i just the cover story on der spiegel online tonight . its a great read for people in this caregiving group . its a story of a lady in the netherlands who has chosen to end her life legally . she doesnt really have a terminal illness , just a crippled , paralyzed body that shes tired of living within . you guys should check it out -- its a 15 minute read that clarifies ' self determination ' in the best light ive ever seen it .
NH is described in the story as a prison to many people . my aunt has been imprisoned for 6 months when she could have been out grooving on the countryside every day -- all because i pissed off her poa . poa has too much power and that needs to change in this country . edna is a timid soul . i wont be so easily herded in my older age , thats a guarantee ..
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Bless your heart Jeanette....I am thankful that Mama does seem to sleep so well through the night...So once I get her settled she's usually fine til morning...and I know a lot of people who don't have it that way. About the only time she is restless is when she is sick..Thankfully right now she seems to have gotten past all the bugs and viruses that have had a grip on her the whole winter.. I hope you are able to get a good nights sleep tonight...your Mom as well..
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Susan, I have watched all those as well, and true Magic, was a creepy one..I love Anthony Hopkins....LOVE him..and he played that role so well...and Fats...I'm with you, I hate those ventriloquist dummies...there was some short film , it may have been on Night Gallery, or some such series like that, where it was a creepy little voodoo type doll and it would come to life and chase people with a knife...so after that one, I was not too fond of any kind of weird looking doll...

From Hell it Came!!! Oh wow Katie! That one was great! I had not thought of it in years...now I will have to look it up online and maybe fall asleep to it tonight..haha....yes, my color changing rabbit is really cute, but the prismatic light that was floating around in that hall the other night scared me pretty good for a minute or two...my cats are always doing things that scare me to death...One night when I had the small CD player in next to Mama's bed, and I kept a big band CD on there, we were awakened suddenly by blaring "In the Mood'...one of the cats had sat on the button and turned it on...since I'm kind of out of my head when I get woke up suddenly, it took me a while to get a grip and then I figured out what was going on..haha

Captain, I'm so sorry, I do understand though...it reaches a point where our loved ones have such a look of longing on their faces, it is hard to see them linger...so hard to let them go, but maybe harder to see them just sitting and staring..almost as if they are already seeing another more majestic sight ahead...and wanting to go to it...I will keep Miss Edna and you in my prayers.

Tonight is comedy night...I love the goofy funny stuff...and very much needed right about this tie of the week....
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Captain, sorry about your Edna. Why does she tremble? Poor dear.
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i just like international " newsing " around online nowadays . the big story last night was ISIS burning a POW alive in a steel cage . the world is rightfully outraged but h*lls bells , the usa has been firebombing , napalming , agent orange-ing , and carpet bombing people in the hundreds of thousands for 80 years . burned alive is burned alive . hundreds , if not thousands of iraqi soldiers were incinerated on the ' highway of death ' outside of kuwait city as they were trying to surrender -- an extreme war crime per the geneva accords . whos wrong or right doesnt seem to be the issue , its usually who stands to profit from the oil , heroin , or weapons sales . one commenter sticks out in my mind from last nights reading . he said he would be shocked at the craziness going on in the world if not for the fact that its been going on for at least 15 thousand years .
had a good workday , now its snowing like hell outside . stopped to see edna and frankly ill be happy for her if she passes in her sleep soon . shes a brave and wonderful human being but she has little QOL right now . no pain to speak of but she just sits and trembles . shes in a great NH and the staff dearly love her but there is not much to look forward to each day , in her condition .
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Hope22, A color changing rabbit in the hallway?!! Now I will be awake thinking about that! Your cats must have a great sense of humor to do that!
The first horror movie I ever remember seeing when I was about 5yrs old at a neighbor's home had a tree monster with big yellow eyes that went around chasing people on an island...I think it was called "From Hell it Came". I was so terrified that I went home and hid under the dining room table until my Dad came home from work. He laughed and told me not to be afraid of the tree...that real life would be far scarier as an adult. Now I know what he meant! I do love those old movies though...they were either kitchy films made for drive ins or really good psychological horror films, not like the trashy ones today which I don't bother with. "Carnival of Souls" is a good old scary film.
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Pam where do they come up with that stuff? My mom sometimes think she's in the army overseas, a professional ballplayer, etc. She comes up with some very detailed stories sometimes. Once she thought she was a man. I'm careful what i watch when she is up - only old comedy or sports. Anyone else's loved one do this?
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I love scarey movies, but not gore fests! I like to be scared, not grossed out! I went to the tv room today to watch one.. dad joined me... Of course he is saying how "he did that"... We had a problem with "Home alone" at christmas..LOL Oh well... he also watches historical movies with me and tells me how he fought that way during his Navy days... horses, maces, swords...LOL time to change the channel dad!!
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Better watch Anne of Green Gables tonite so I don't have nightmares haha!
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oh, and add one more that I absolutely cannot watch - the Lifetime adaptation of Stephen King's short story - BIG DRIVER. I cannot watch that. I got as far as the rape scene and had to turn it off. It was just too disturbing. I know that was the whole idea of making it, but it just made me sick to watch it.
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Jeanette - yes, mom is definitely changing rapidly - like I said, it seems like it's on a cycle of about every 2 weeks with some new symptom of dementia or just plain old aging. My sister and I discussed this today and she marvelled at how well mom "keeps it together" when she has company, and appears like nothing is wrong. I told her it's a coping mechanism - she *knows* her memory is slipping, so she stays relatively quiet and doesn't initiate conversation - that way, no one can *see* that her memory is slipping. I told her that no one but me is here 24/7, and that's why no one thinks she's in as bad a shape as she really is - because when they stop by for a brief visit, she's all smiles and seems fine - they don't see the bathroom issues, the forgetfulness, etc. Since Dad passed away 2 years ago, it's gotten far worse. If I hadn't moved in to make sure she takes her pills, takes a shower, changes clothes, the bills get paid, etc - she'd be in very poor shape both physically and financially. If I left and she suddenly had to do it all herself, she'd be in a nursing home inside of a few months, I think. (Not tooting my own horn, just saying...that's how bad she's gotten in the space of 2 years.)

Scary movies...I have a list of those that I cannot watch - some I *will* watch, just to prove to myself I can do it without flinching, because they once scared the hell out of me. LOL

MAGIC - 1970's, with Anthony Hopkins and Burgess Meredith...and that criminally insane ventriloquist's dummy - FATS. *That* one did me in. Somehow, I ended up watching that when I was *far* too young to do so - like 7 years old. Scarred me for life, it did. I *hate* ventriloquist dummies to this day, or any story or movie about dolls that come to life. They give me nightmares. I love dummies like Peanut and Walter (Jeff Dunham) - just not ones that look like that G*D* Fats.

CHILD'S PLAY - yes, the Chuckie movies. Can't stand them. Though I have to say, the later ones are pretty ridiculous and far from frightening. I mean come on - "Bride of Chuckie"? "Seed of Chuckie" for crying out loud??

THE BIRDS - That one still creeps me out. Thank God no bird I've ever heard makes a noise like those did. (*shudder*)

SAW - I *hate* those movies, as well as most modern horror flicks. It's not about the psychological scare anymore - it's all about how disgusting, grotesque and bloody you can make it. Give me a good ol' Stephen King movie like The Shining (the one HE made, not Kubrick, though I like that one for laughs with Jack Nicholson) for an incredible scare that will sink right into your psyche. You'll be watching your trees and hedges for days afterwards, expecting them to move....
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Yes it is hope!! And all those above mentioned visited mom last night... she talked and walked with them literally ALL NIGHT and has only slept maybe an hour so far today. Least one thing is for sure... when she crashes it will be for quite a long time and I will be able to get some sleep cuz my eyeballs hurt.
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LOL.....flying monkeys, poltergeists, boogeymen...kind of like another day in the life of every caregiver, right?? :)
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I mean fly out OVER the audience's heads! Sheesh! Talk about outer space haha!
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Veronica - you mean Wizard of Oz? Those flying monkeys are terrifying! You'd better not go see the musical because I've heard they fly out of the audience's heads!
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Dee I am sure it was something from outer space come to steal Hope's DNA.
I was scared so badly watching the yellow brick road or whatever it was called at age 4 I still haven't watched it.
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Hoooooope...are you SURE it was the cats? Mwuahahahaha! I would've taken all the dogs with me to check it out LOL!
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Oh Dee..I totally have had dreams like that...and I have had things happen that I'm not so sure were dreams ... eeeeeek.....one funny thing that happened to me just last week.....remember the movie Poltergeist? That always kind of creeped me out when the closet had those demons in there...and those wacky lights...anyway last week I woke up during the night as I do all the time anyway and there was this odd light in the hall, changing colors and it just kept going...I am thinking...ok, I am dreaming right:??? it just kept going so I got up and threw on the light..at first I could not find it, but somewhere in the midst of my cleaning out the attic I had knocked this Easter rabbit over and the cats apparently had chewed the little cord turn on switch to where it would not turn off and it was that rabbit..haha....
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Oh, Hope! I would've passed out! I hate those movies. I still can't watch them. Ever have a dream that you swear to this day is real? When I was a kid I used to reach around and flip the light switch on the wall on before I'd go into a room. Once I swear something incredibly strong and hairy grabbed my hand and tried to pull me in - I couldn't scream - finally it let me go. I really felt that was real but no one believed me - they all laugh at me to this day when I bring it up. I'm one of 7 kids, smack dab in the middle, only one sister 10 years younger. Those brothers really gave me a hard time growing up - but I reciprocated as much as I could =).
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One funny thing I will share since we were talking about those kinds of movies...I am not a scary person...My life has had enough horror situations in it to be fearful of most things on the tube..BUT back when Halloween came out in 1979 my college roommates and I went to see it. Scariest movie I ever saw....I was afraid of my own shadow for months after that one. It was one of those very suspenseful movies on top of that so that made it all the more frightening...but there is a scene in it when the evil person in the movie shows up at the top of the stairs wearing a sheet over his head and the soon to be victim thinks it is her boyfriend ...well, a couple of days after that, I had gone to bed early that night and my roommates thought it would be funny to put a sheet over one of their heads and stand there in front of my bed and wake me up...and brother did I wake up...I immediately began my blood curdling screaming and I think I almost had a heart attack that night because I was convulsing and throwing up and fighting them...they quickly saw they probably should not have done that....it is funny now but I have never been so scared in my life...and it took a while to get past it....eek
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Dee, I don't know, I guess since I watched them as a kid it just reminds me of being safe and everyone being home and together again...Now I'm with Captain about the blood and gore for the sake of entertainment...too many crazy folks out there already to find that entertaining for sure....

But I do love Andy Griffith, and the old Dragnet and such...and I will always love Gone with the Wind....and I LOVE Shadowlands...that one is a lot more recent, but it is awesome. I love CS Lewis and that being based on reality and it is such a beautiful story....

Mama is having a good morning...yay...that is always an excellent start to my day....!! Hope everyone's day is awesome!!!
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Yes, Captain - human nature is definitely interesting!
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we didnt have a tv when i was a kid cause of my dads religious beliefs of course , but to this day thats about the only thing i appreciate about his craziness . my ex and my youngest son used to sit and watch every inane piece of drivel they could drag home from the video store and it would drive me nuts . i consider blood splattering across a tv screen for the sake of entertainment to be pointless obscenity at worst and mental masturbation at best . i cant imagine why someone would want to fill their head with gore and mood music .
im a diehard simpsons fan . humankind is nuts and i dont mind laughing at " us " .
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Hope, how on earth did you fall asleep watching that?! And The Birds? I was scared of them for a long time. Big joke in my family how Dee was always afraid of the dark. Made the mistake of watching Dawn of the Dead when I was young - one guy bit a woman's shoulder - looked like chicken - still can't get near chicken skin to this day. Remember the blob? That was just dumb haha! Gone With the Wind...now THAT is a great movie. I've read that book at least a dozen times. There was a "sequel" that came out called "Scarlett". She ends up in Ireland...that was a pretty good book. Ahhh. Classic books and old black and whites.
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Jessie..I know it's not funny but it is a little comical how all this stuff stuck with us from way back then...
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