Keeping in Touch

It was my niece's birthday this past week so son K dropped this card over to her house with a monetary gift enclosed. I added the '25' with some stickers.  My niece said they stuck it in a closet for a few days due to covid.  Then she would be allowed to open it.  My sister had email money transferred gifts to my kids for their April birthdays recently. She was unable to go shopping as she usually prefers to.

I called my uncle's partner to see how they were both doing. My uncle has been in a long term care home for awhile now with deteriorating Alzheimer's. He was actually my departed 2nd cousin's husband and was lucky to find a devoted partner after my cousin died. So the partner is as fine as can be these days. Of course she is unable to visit the care home at the moment and does worry about my uncle. However a few of the workers there are kind enough to put her on the phone to speak to him regularly. He doesn't say much but I am sure he can hear her voice and it must do him a world of good. Fortunately his care home has weathered the covid crisis so far, we have had a lot of long term care covid deaths in Toronto.

In other news, I have started weeding a bit every day. Last week I was surprised as the neighbour across the street gave me a big hello saying he had not seen me for awhile. He seemed to be in the mood to talk. I am usually the one to strike up a conversation. People need to socialize, isn't it true, regardless of how private or introverted one might be. I asked him how the grocery shopping was going, to which he replied that we had no choice it is still something we have to do. I told him we were thinking of where and how to get lawn fertilizer. He thought that although places like Home Depot are opening up there might be lines. He seemed to be going off to the grocery store himself. It was a brisk, windy kind of day, not a day to stand talking to neighbours really, albeit socially distanced.

The Christmas Visit

We went to visit my uncle who has Alzheimer's at his long term care home. We always make sure his devoted partner is there. He doesn't say much now, compared to last year but that is to be expected. We took a poinsettia plant to brighten his room. His partner says he is only taking semi solid foods now as he has trouble swallowing. His water is a thickened water. The solids are softened.

I found these interesting articles concerning dysphagia (trouble swallowing) and on how seniors can use the 5 senses of food.

My Flavoured Yogurt

I bought some plain yogurt and decided to flavour some of it myself. I just mixed in some good strawberry jam and some chopped fresh peach. It was so delicious.

Here is an article about a new Alzheimer's treatment from Australia that fully restores memory in mice using ultrasound waves.  Human trials may start as early as 2017.  It seems this is not the first time I've heard about this, or something similar out of Australia.  It would be a good thing.

A Wonderful Review

It's not often you see a movie reviewed with 4 out of 4 stars, it made me think it might be worth seeing 'The Dark Knight', the new Batman movie!
According to the reviewer, this movie 'incorporates human frailty and realistic threats of nuclear and economic destruction into the densely layered saga'.  He describes the movie as a 'brainy blockbuster' where all the actors have done wonderful jobs with the characters, it's described as one of the year's best movies. Apparently 50 % of the film contains IMAX images.  'The Dark Knight Rises is soul-deep. It prompts us look at our most private fears and how we cope with them. It questions what happens if we give into those fears.  It’s a demanding movie, one that could leave you exhausted as well as exhilarated'

Well at the very least, it's a wonderful review!   Do you think you might go see it?

In other news this article describes new hope in the Alzheimer's fight.

'The treatment in this case was IVIG, which is a mixture of antibodies collected from the blood of healthy human individuals.

...the treatment uses the strategy of immunotherapy, a generic approach which introduces an antibody into a patient to try to neutralize a factor that is important for the disease’s progression.'

The research results have been so promising they are expanding the trials with results expected in 2013.

Pretty Clouds and Sunset

I spotted these pretty clouds on the weekend. It was a gorgeous, warm day, almost T-shirt weather.

Pretty Clouds

A few hours later, I caught this pretty sunset in the same spot:

City Sunset

Yesterday in my aerobics class our instructor asked us what we wanted for Easter. She's funny, after a pause, she said she wants Diamonds! Didn't think about that one, sounds good to me! It seems everyone has an Ipad these days, she did. In fact, she played her songs on it, as she had misplaced her regular CD.

After that, the weather was great, so I took my mom to McDonald's to try their new McBistro Chicken Sandwich. They have a 50% off special this week, so I got 2 grilled chicken ones with bacon. The bacon made all the difference, and probably the generous helping of mayonnaise that goes with it! Well, it was whole-grain bread.

While I was in line, this older woman was loudly pushing her way to the front of the line. Her son and daughter were with her. Her son put his arm on her shoulder and she yelled 'don't touch me!' I asked the daughter if it was Alzheimer's and she said 'yes'. Apparently her mom had walked out of her nursing home and they were contacted. She said she wanted to go to Walmart. They gave her some lunch and I noticed everytime the daughter tried to offer her a bite of sandwich, she re-coiled as if being attacked until she eventually decided to take a bite. It's a difficult time of life.