Where To, Bud?

No, I'm not saying "Wow!" as an exclamation, but as an acronym for" World of Warcraft ! But I may as well be saying "Wow!", for all the good playing the game has done for my cognitive functions, reaction time and overall ability to concentrate. When I first went to have myself examined for EOAD, my doctor recommended playing this online game in order to keep my senses sharp and intact for as long as possible while science searches for a cure for this currently fatal disease. Dude, we rockin' sincerely, and here's the link if you'd like to try it out for 10 days free: www.worldofwarcraft.com I'm wolkenlaufre in Alexstrasia and if you can find me (Human Alliance Warrior), let's group up (my guild is The EOAD FEEBS) and kill some bad guys. Want to? Lets have some WoW fun with some WoW toons! Hope to see y'all in Azeroth sometime! The guild is called "EOAD FEEBS" and I am the "feeb-master"! Look for me to sign up! Bi...

Taking the Namenda and the Exelon I thought would slow things down, but I can see now that it's not working as well as in the beginning. The thought processes are just not as smooth as they were a year ago. As I wrote earlier the last test remaining is the neuro-psychological one at Wesley Woods at which time I will be assigned a "stage" as my scores compare with the rest of the nation's patients. Just writing the above 2 paragraphs took me 15 minutes, because the words just aren't coming to me as fast as they once did. Used to be, the keys would clatter continuously, but not anymore. This isn't easy for a former English major/broadcast journalist to accept, let alone someone whose life the last 15 years has been spent as a respiratory therapist and enjoying making my patients feel better. Emotionally, I feel like a blank page right now. Right now there's no anger, there's no sadness, there's no happiness. There's just this void. I wish I had b...

Oh, shit. I'm not paying attention to the slouchy, lithpy doctor, am I? I've been sitting here all day, burning up the internet and setting a record (I think) for the number of daily posts I have made on The Straight Dope. So I just watched the 2nd little vignette I linked y'all to, and it sounds to me that I'm in mid-fuckin-stage already! No, I'm not shitting my pants yet, but I'm all over all those other symptoms! Holy Shit! I've been in DENIAL! And didn't REALIZE it! I've been sitting here on the computer ALL friggin day long , writing on SDMB and acting like they're here in the room with me! Writing in a "conversational" TONE (as someone already pointed out!) Holy shit this is really happening right here on stage, friends and neighbors! It's hitting "home" finally. I'm finally, REALLY gettin' it. I mean, I KNOW I've GOT it, but I wasn't really GETTING that I got it. Shit.

Here ya go! Hope you're having a great weekend and are staying dry. Bill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-P9lbTJ9Hw

....... and it's going to require a lot of my concentration, so until it's all settled, my blog will not be as busy. I have the neuro-psych testing coming up next week, and I am needing a lot of time to do paperwork for early retirement/disability. This does not mean I'm gettin' lazy though, okay? On the contrary, it will mean I'll be busier than ever and even more active in being " pro active" in AD. I am going to use myself as a "guinea-pig" for what happens when a 58 year old guy is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's, and hopefully my learning experience will become a tool for others, because as more and more of us are diagnosed, it will be incumbent upon all of us to learn some "do's and dont's", and that includes caregivers as well as those of us with the disease. We'll compile a "time-line/chronicle" of my "journey", and we'll present it here when it's ready. I think that it'...

...... is not always a good thing, chirrun, especially with dementia. It probably has a lot to do with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), but in the elderly ( shit! , I hate that word!) guess what? More on this as I research it a little more, but for now, just know that your ol' pal "Billy-Bob" is noticing it in himself. Are ya having a good week? Hope so! I did a sit-up today! :) Rock out! Love Y'all Bill

I'm no longer a respiratory therapist, y'all. Shit happens..... Am I going to miss my patients? Damn right , I will! I absolutely loved taking care of sick folks and making them better, and it was a huge bonus when they saw me around town or in the grocery store and spoke to me. It made me feel like I had done something worthwhile, and even though I might not always have recognized them ("Maybe if you'd lie down, I'd recall your name!"), it made me feel good that they recognized me ! So what now? "What now" is that I "re-invent" myself. Get back to writing, play my guitars, maybe go back to broadcasting, keep fighting this (Alzheimer's) shit, and try to help make people better in another way, and just persevere. Y'all didn't think I was gonna bite the big one , I hope???? HELL NO! Got too much to do yet. Okay, I know that y'all like my "theme" blog entries, so here's one to fit the title of this one: I love...

So , last week I'm in my Kroger supermarket, cruising down the aisles, looking for a beard trimmer, just standing there, minding my own business, when out of the corner of my ear, I hear....... "Eyelash curlers? Yes. Ma'am. Right down this aisle just next where the elderly gentleman is standing." "He can't mean me ," I'm thinking to myself, but I look around anyway and as it happens , those eyelash thingies are right next to me, and I'm the only "gentleman" (and the only other person) in that particular aisle. " Dude !", I call out to this little whim-wham, still usin' thumb and forefinger to masturbate, cross-dressin', needle dick'd, Mac and Cheese eatin', best part of him ran down his daddy's leg, pants showin' the crack of his ass, smelly little Cap'n Crunch FART !, "I'm only 59! That's a far cry from ' Elderly '!, so how about you just leave that word out from now on, ...

Hey Guys & Gals Back from my appointment with my neurologist, Dr. Kukaswadia, and the good news is my 72 hour EEG came back negative! I haven't written a lot about Dr. K, but I would just like to say I appreciate so much his methodical approach to what is going on with me: He has left no stone unturned and he is genuinely concerned about me and my dementia. After reading some of the answers from last year's "Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease Town Hall Meetings", I was afraid of being medicated and forgotten about, but happily that has not been the case with me and I am grateful he is taking such good care of his patient! Next step is the memory testing at Emory Clinic Wesley Woods Geriatric (I hate that word!) Center. No word yet as to when my testing will be, but all my medical records have been forwarded to the staff there. A word about a new "symptom" which has recently reared it's ugly head: Inappropriate comments. These seem to have evaded me...