JOAN’S BLOG – TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2007 – EXHAUSTION!!!!!!!

I haven’t been this tired since Joel was born – he didn’t sleep through the night for a year!

There are only two of us in the house, and my work, as is yours, is endless – cooking, laundry,  bill paying, website work (which I absolutely love doing), tutoring, going to doctor’s appointments with Sid, making his daily lists, explaining everything to him all day long, helping him with his computer, fixing his computer, dealing with his pouting (he has been controlling the temper tantrums this week) when he doesn’t get what he wants when he wants it, dealing with his complaints that I give him too many chores to do during the day (apparently sweeping the floor, making a salad, and cutting up a pineapple are too many things to do in the 15 hours that he is awake).

And then I read the message boards, and as tired as I am, I think my life is a breeze compared to those of you with children at home; to those of you whose spouses cannot dress or bathe themselves; to those of you whose spouses are delusional and wandering. I know my time for those challenges will come, and I hope I am up to it. My hat goes off to you. How do you do it? How is possible to still be standing at the end of the day? You have to be physically and emotionally drained. I cannot help you, and for that I am sad. I can, however, offer understanding and support, as does everyone who reads this site and writes on the Message Boards.

There are resources out there to give you some respite. The Alzheimer’s Association is a good place to start. Go to www.alz.org/; click on “We Can Help”; then click “care finder”. All the information you need to find help is in there.

 TODAY’S HUMOR

My husband had a very brief marriage (less than a year) before he met me. It was a huge wedding attended by every relative from both families, including Sid’s grandmother, who was well into her 80’s. Fast forward 2 ½ years. We had been married a couple of months, when Sid and his aunts decided it would be a good idea for Sid to visit his grandmother, who now resided in a nursing home with advanced Alzheimer’s Disease (They called it “senility” back then). “Well, I can’t go”, I said. “Your grandmother attended your wedding. She’ll know I’m not that wife.”  I was five feet tall, and at that time, weighed all of 112 lbs. His first wife was about 5’ 10” with a large frame. “Oh, don’t worry”, insisted the aunts. “She doesn’t know anyone. She won’t know the difference.” So off we went to the nursing home. There sat this elderly woman, who was unfocused, rambling in her native tongue, and babbling incoherently. Then, all of a sudden, as if a curtain lifted, she said, in English, “Sidney’s wife looks different.”

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