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?