Happy Birthday - to me!

I brought doughnuts in to the Beacon Staff

and they sang

Happy Birthday

to me!

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Fair trade!

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September 22, 2009

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Even with Alzheimers

“He’s still Mel...”

He had dreamed of having his own horses since he was a kid, Cathy Thompson recalled about her husband Melroy. But today in his mid 70’s, she realized he has forgotten his dream... along with many other things... because Mel has Alzheimers, a memory loss disease and is in a special care facility.

As we sat at the Thompson’s kitchen table on their farm a couple of miles southwest of Cannon Falls, Cathy recalled that the previous Friday had been their 43rd anniversary. But there had been no celebration. Cathy just went shopping for groceries.

She recalls, “I still wake up and think he’s in bed... but he’s not.”

Mel has been well known for his love of horses and his choice of Will West, a champion leopard Appaloosa stallion that he and Howard Banitt bought many years ago.

And I myself remember how comfortable I felt in Mel’s presence. Like the time I was driving past his farm and noticed a neighbor’s horse was loose on the road. LaVonne Gappa and I tried to corral the critter and get him back into his pasture but we weren’t getting it done. She went back to her house to call Mel and when I saw him coming I just relaxed because I knew that everything would be OK.

But as we talked in her kitchen, Cathy explained that Mel had started changing about eight years ago. The first sign that he had a problem was that he would forget to turn off the tractor - so the battery drained.

And he wasn’t feeding the animals correctly.

And Cathy had to take over the checkbook because he was paying the bills more than once. They relied on their friend, Tom Pasch a lot, she recalled.

The next signal of a problem came when Mel couldn’t finish the sentence he was speaking.

They went to a doctor.

The medication prescribed had side effects that made Mel pretty sick. He didn’t want to take it.

Following this he had a “good period” but then he began making mistakes in his comprehension.

And there was the time he got upset with Cathy and took off in their pickup. The family was worried and notified theHighway Patrol. But Mel soon returned. He had just gone a few miles to Sogn and back.

And there was the time they were at a show. At intermission Mel decided to go home. There was no changing his mind.

When Mel’s temperament changed, some of the family were concerned that he would physically endanger Cathy. During one episode, they called 911 and an ambulance came and took him to the hospital. Mel himself appeared to be thinking he was back with his Dad although that had been 60 years earlier.

Cathy finally realized that although at times Mel was acting better, he needed more care. They found one place but after four months she took him out when it was discovered he had a collapsed lung and pneumonia.

After much research and finding availability, Cathy chose the Red Wing Health Center where Cathy said, “He is loved, well taken care of and being visited quite often by his family.”

In reviewing Mel’s early symptoms of Alzheimers Disease, it seems it appeared so quietly. Because we all might normally do these things. Like Mel just forgot to turn the tractor off... or he got distracted when finishing a sentence... or he forgot if he had paid a bill. All these things can happen “normally”, right?

I got up from Cathy’s kitchen table where we had been discussing writing this article.

I gathered my notes and was heading out the back door to my car when Cathy called, “Rosie, do you want your keys?”

I had forgotten them.

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More on bees!

7 p.m. Swarm of bees attack as I'm fixing fence in the far pasture. I was determined to get the line fixed so I kept pounding the nail on the insulator on the post even though bees were pestering me. NOT A SMART IDEA! Too many bees attacking as I ran for the motor cart and headed back home. When I got to the house the inside of my ears were itching... then the bottom of my feet... then my back... Then I had the chills and was shaking. There wasn't a rash on the itching spots at first but they soon came - welts under the skin. My upper lip was swelling and the roof of my mouth felt strange. This got me concerned as I had been stung by a hornet earlier this summer and then a batch of angry ground bees had got me then too. At 7:15 I took a Benadryl and it made me immediately dizzy and exhausted so I sat on the floor while Paul talked to the doctor. 7:45 - pain and swelling and chills. 8:00 - rash on arms - swelling of hands and arms almost to the elbows. My right side of my face by my eye was pretty swollen. It took a couple of days for it to start getting better. I was so happy to see the bones in my hands again! I stopped the Benadryl on about the third day although my face was still swollen. But I thought the worst was over. Oh yes, I drank quite a bit of water. Not as much as I should have probably. I just didn't want to drink it! You probably didn't need to know all of this! Chuckle! NOW I'M WONDERING... what symbolic reference could these two attacks of swarming bees mean? Answers: 1) I let irritating things bother me? 2) Irritations can cause serious problems? 3) Small issues can be serious when they come all at once? 4) I should have recognized the seriousness of the small "issues" and their potential problems right away? 5) What's your suggestion?

Bee stings still itching...

Not that important, but sure keeps your attention!

The best thing I've put on it besides ice has been some horse liniment.

I smell like peppermint...

Wonder if I'll start "whinnying"!


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Update on bee stings...

It's 24 hours later... and the pain from the hornet sting on my finger is gone... but the pain from the ground bees attack on my ankle has turned into itching and although bearable, it's crummy!


Haven't seen any of the ground bees today and the horses aren't plagued by them so I think they were disturbed by the tractor mowing the weeds and were furious!
Apparently they've found new "digs".

Little Critters... but they sure sting!

All the work I had been accomplishing came to a grinding halt.
Just because of a tiny little thing - about a inch long.

Previously I had washed carpets and presented some marketing strategies and website ideas to an employer and trained three horses and on and on...
I decided to weed whip and headed down to the river to clear the edge.
But after a few feet of clearing, unknown to me a hornet had grabbed on to my tight fitting yellow gloves and when I felt it I tried to brush it off but it seemed stuck on my glove finger.
I had to strip them off and shut off the weed whip - the heavy duty kind.
I lay it on the ground and ran up to the house - really concerned about the extent of the bee sting.
The pain was excruciating for such a tiny little hole!
I drank water - got ice for my finger - and thought it would get better.
NOT!
About an hour later I took a couple of Ibuprofen - just to do something.
Three hours later - I thought I felt good enough to feed the horses and end the day.

I walked out to the first shed and got the grain.
The stallion was acting like an exploding firecracker.
He tore into his shed with his buddy and they milled around.
What was going on?
Well, I was soon to find out.
I stepped over to open their gate and felt pin pricks on my ankle - which turned out more painful because I had stepped onto ground bees!
They were all over.
That's why the horses were going nuts in that area.

I got them settled into their individual sheds and fed the horses in the other pasture and then came back to the house to take care of the many bee stings on my ankle.

They weren't as bad as the first one.
But they just added insult to injury...it seemed.


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When a loser is also a winner!

Is winning the only thing?

Do people only remember the winners?

At our family reunion camp up in Itasca State Park, the games began. The young parents and their children had been bicycling and hiking and now came the competition at Bean Bag Toss.

OK, sounds wimpy but that’s why I signed up for it!

And you should have heard the cheers as relatives rooted for their cousins or aunts and uncles. The small tykes got to stand closer to the target bean bag hole than their older siblings and us grandfolk.

Near the end of the competition someone had set up a challenge between my son, Scott, and me. His family had already competed.

Now every Mom probably has lost many games of “Go Fish” or “Crazy Eight” to their kids when they were little. So I don’t mind losing to him. But he’s grown up now and I’m going to make him work for it!

I had played a couple of games of tossing the bean bags earlier that day. I figured I had the “power swing” down.

So I didn’t expect to go scoreless!

We had a goal of 11 points. Soon Scott had nine and I had zero!

How could that be? I hadn’t even hit the board!

My last chance came up as Scott scored his winning points but I had my turn left.

The crowd yelled, “Get it in the hole!”

And although I hadn’t even gotten the bag onto the board up til now, I strutted up to the line and nodded to the crowd and tossed the bag... through the hole for three points!

Cheers and enthusiasm billowed up from the crowd.

I strutted around accepting their congratulations and they started calling and encouraging... “Do it again!”

Well, remember now that I hadn’t hit the board until that last throw! But I strutted right back up to the line and nodded to the crowd and tossed that bean bag and walla! I hit the hole again for another three points!

The crowd went berzerk cheering and yelling, “Do it again! Do it again!”

I performed a Jesse Ventura type of world wrestling championship stance as I held the bean bag above my head to show the crowd and went up to the line ... and tossed it in the hole for the third time!

I have no idea how I managed to toss those bags into the hole. It seemed like I was just watching along with everyone else!

No, I didn’t win the game. I had one more bag to toss and it missed the board totally.

But you know, with all my clowning around, and then making three fantastic tosses... no one probably even remembered who really won the game!

So, just do the best you can. Then everyone wins.

(I’ll try to remember this when watching pro football!)