Yesterday was a day of ups and downs, we made it to the end of dad's radiotherapy treatment for esophageal cancer. Even the snow didn't stop us, who'd have thought that 4 weeks could be so long and stressful, now we wait for everything to heal before scans can be done to find out if dad's in the clear
We celebrated by walking The Boys which dad really enjoyed, he's a massive dog lover and has really missed seeing them these past 4 weeks with everything that's been going on
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| An elderly gentleman sitting on a park bench between Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel and Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel as they all look towards the camera |
All too soon our walk was over as we had to head back to my parents house, dad had an appointment with a Dr from the mental health team about the results from the memory tests and scans he had done before Christmas
Sadly my suspicions were confirmed that dad does indeed have Alzheimer's, but unlike with mum's Vascular Dementia there's a medication dad can take that will hopefully slow it's progression
It was quite a rollercoaster yesterday and I'm still processing everything that was said, it's a lot to take in
For now we're not sure what the future holds and we will carry on as we are, dad is fiercely independent and so long as he's safe and stays within his routine then I'm happy to leave things as they are, which the Dr also agreed was best for the time being, although I must remain watchful for any changes
There was talk of assigning a social worker, I'm not overly keen on that idea as mum will hit the roof and I'll never hear the end of it about social services always poking their noses in as mum puts it
Both my parents have always been so fiercely independent and never accepted help from anyone, so it'll be a bitter pill to swallow if social services get involved, getting mum to agree to a carer coming in to help her in the mornings was hard enough
I don't know what the future holds for now, but we'll cross each bridge when we get to it
Dawn xxx
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Hari OM
ReplyDeleteI know the trouble it was to get dad to agree to any outside assistance - and it all came too little too late, really. Do remember to look after yourself in among all that caring for the parents... YAM xx
Thankfully I've just had a restful long weekend Yam, I'm so sorry help came a little late with your fathers situation, it's such a difficult situation to be in with parents as they understandably want to remain independent, my dad told his care team to leave after three days when he came out of hospital after his knee replacement surgery which caused a few problems, but we muddled through like you do when you have too xxxx
DeleteYour Dad is dealing with so much and I'm thankful he has you there for the roller coaster ride with him. Thanks for joining our Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
ReplyDeleteThank you Brian, I'm so glad that I can be there for my father at this time, the only blessing is with his Alzheimer's he doesn't stress about things and dwell on them in the way that he used too, so a lot of the time he's pretty chilled out about everything, I just hope the Radiotherapy was successful, I really don't think he'll do well with the chemo side effects if he needs to have it, but if he does we'll cross that bridge if/when we get to it xxx
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