I haven't blogged much over the last few days. We are currently involved in moving my ninety-one year old mother into an assisted living facility in Montreal. For today, all I wish to say is that, while cancer is a viscous disease, and diabetes is a horrific disease, the most tragic disease is the one that results in the body outliving the mind.
I will be back in -- hopefully -- at a not too distant date. There is plenty to write about.
24 comments:
My thoughts are with you Owen. Go Well.
A difficult and distressing situation Owen, one which I fear more than the physical deterioration that comes with increasing age. My thoughts are with you and your mum.
My thoughts are with you, Owen. We underwent something very similar with my mother, who suffered from dementia for the last five years of her life.
It's hard to watch what happens to someone suffering from dementia, Lorne -- as Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It, "sans everything."
Thanks for your kind thoughts, Rural. I appreciate them.
Thank you, Pam.
Take good care and good luck with this difficult move, Owen. It's so hard to have to see loved ones in decline, especially when they seem lost to you.
.. be the good and caring son ..
its incredibly important ..
Been there. Done That. I understand completely.
All the best to you as you face these challenges.
Old Age has its blessings, UU4077. But it also has its trials and tribulations.
The most important of all virtues, salamander, is compassion.
Every once in awhile you see the kernel of the person who used to there, Bejiing.
But, just as quickly, it disappears.
I'm sorry this is happening Owen. I "lost" my grandmother 5 years ago. It's heartbreaking. My thoughts are with you too.
The same has happened to my brother. This disease also robs a loved one, of their quality of life.
I am really sorry Owen. This is very hard to take especially, when it's your Mother. However, you will learn to adjust your life, around the situation.
Love for your Mother will be constant and that's the best support, you can give her.
It's an adjustment for everybody, Anon. And it takes work.
It's common place these days, Karen. It's becoming as common as influenza.
Bless you Owen look after her she is the only mother you have. I lost mine in a car accident when I was nineteen that was a crippling blow, I still miss her and I am almost sixty.
Love,
Mogs
I hear you Owen, I went through this with the grand aunt who mentored me in politics a quarter century back. Her body lasted three years beyond her having any mind left at all, and she was widely regarded as someone with the sharpest razor trap mind anyone had ever known of. It was why she was a major process side political operator (and the one that taught me the reasons why process issues matter so much) for the NS Libs federally and Provincially, to the point that even to this day people who were involved in the party back then recognize her name. Watching that personality disappear and be reduced beyond even that which Alzheimers leaves behind was and is still one of the most painful periods of my life, as I was living in the house with her and helping her sisters manage her as best as they could. It was a very rough time, and I was ready to pull the plug in hospital if they tried to keep her on life support against the wishes of the family (back then you could still run that risk around here) and take the fallout for doing so, it was that hard to watch what she had become.
So I cannot agree with you more about your comment about what the most tragic disease is. I hope your circumstances are not as horrific as what I went through, although like you the root cause was cancer, bone marrow in her case reducing red blood cells and limiting oxygen transfer. Unfortunately her body refused to quit long past the point where it would have been reasonable. She was always very willful to live, she has nearly died in her youth and surprised everyone by doing so, it seemed her body just did not know how to stop. It was one of her most impressive traits while she was a person, and one of the most distressing in those last years.
Sorry, hadn't meant to go on quite so much, your comment triggered more than a little amount of flashback. You have my best wishes, thoughts, and prayers in this difficult time for you, and I can only offer my sympathies and my ability to relate to what you described, for it truly is the hardest type of illness to have to watch/take care of in those closest to you.
Scotian (not at home, cannot use my usual account)
It's truly tragic to watch brilliant people be reduced to such meager circumstances, Scotian.
It's truly sad.
Life has its triumphs, Mogs. But it also has its tragedies.I'm not sure if they ever even out.
Be strong and be good to yourself. (You're already good to others I'm sure.)
Thanks for the kind thoughts, thwap.
Take Care Owen!
Thanks for the good wishes, Steve.
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