Where To, Bud?

 Yesterday's discussion dealt with the human  aspect of the new Infrastructure Bill. Today I want to add an "e" to the word "human" and take a look at what our Caregivers need from that angle. Currently, there are an estimated 53 million Americans serving as caregivers to their elderly family members who require care for their disabilities. They are not recompensed for that expense which comes at an emotional cost as well as the financial one. Figures released by the AARP indicate that on average, family caregivers spend about 24 hours a week along with $7.000.00 in out-of-pocket expenses. Paid Long-term Care is a dream for those family members, so they'll foot the bills on their own.

........... about neurodegenerative disease.  The one I want to focus on in this entry is what is known as "Sandwich Care". That is, caring for an adult with Alzheimer's while also taking care of a child or children at home.  These caregivers constitute nearly 1 in 4 and nearly 60% of those folks rate their stress level as "very high" with 40% reporting symptoms of depression. Lest you think I'm referring to adult children taking care of their elderly parents with Alzheimer's, don't. Don't think that, because I want you to go back a little further in age. I want you to think of teenagers  taking care of their elderly parents. You remember teens, right? Those humans who, from the ages of 13 to 18 are supposed to be going to school and participating in extra-curricular activities such as sports and dating. Just being kids, in other words. Going to dances, proms, games. In short,  having fun ? Instead, we have children taking care of their sick par...

 But don't worry - it's supposed to be there, just like a certain amount is supposed to be in the rest of your body, where it makes cell membranes and manufactures hormones. What's on/in your brain though, (about 25%) works on creating myelin sheaths which protect your nerve cells, serving as insulation and acting as neurotransmitters. If those sheaths get damaged you might get neurological diseases such as our old friend, "Dr. Alzheimer" or "Dr. Parkinson". Protein is the culprit here (how'd you guess?) just as it is with Alzheimer's. TDP- 43 is the protein that's damaging the sheaths and if you don't have them (the sheaths) then your brain can't process the cholesterol properly and you get a neurodegenerative disease. In the words of the late Roseanne Rosannadanna, " It's always somethin' " So what's the answer? Well, controlling your cholesterol is a good thing, and letting the researchers isolate TDP-43 and t...

 It's probably not much different from yours, considering what's happening to and in our world, but since I have nothing else of any great importance going on that I can bitch about - humorously or otherwise - I will try to let you in on "A Day In My Life" 8:30 am - Awaken quietly - usually, my wife Dondra is still asleep. She and I are very light sleepers, so sleep eludes us much of the night - and take my meds. 9:00 am - Off to the bathroom to perform the morning rituals including hygiene. Luckily the hygiene portion is "ingrained" - otherwise, I would need a list on the mirror. 9:45 am - By now, Dondra is awake and I turn into the "Icewater/Ice-Coffee Getter" and I bring them to her bedside. It's part of OUR daily ritual, and I'd miss doing it if I didn't get to. If there are news or health issues to discuss, we do it then with me sitting at her bedside. This is also the time for the daily "neuro-check": One of us says ...

 500 Entries today! If you stayed with the journal since I began, thank you. If you'd like to continue reading my stuff here's a way: 1. To the far right of the title and at the bottom near the comments section,  you'll see a triangular little sign with a ball on each end 2. Click on that little sign 3. Choose "link" and copy/paste that link into your bookmarks 4. Or just send me an e-mail by clicking my name which is under the title highlighted in blue Until I can figure out how to get Blogger to accept a "subscribe" button that's the way we'll have to do it - sorry. Of course, you can also put the journal title on your desktop as a shortcut, but I will leave that to you. ========================================================= As you know, we lost a great guitarist and singer not too long ago - Glen Campbell. You probably have your own favorite song by Glen, so I won't post one here, but I did want to share with you a talk his wife Kim gav...

Ever since I saw the commercial for the product that's made from jellyfish venom, I've wondered about this, and today I want to write about it here. A crazy thought: if you swam into a nest of jellyfish in the ocean and they all stung you at the same time, before you died - would you become the world's smartest human being for just a few seconds? No, of course, you wouldn't and even though I've exaggerated up there I still have a point to make: Don't waste your money. The most popular one is called Prevagen. Priced it lately? A recent check of my pharmacy lists it at $39.99. It's a supplement, so you can get it right off the shelf without a prescription. The trouble is the  lack of regulation by the FDA. The FDA simply has no idea how to get a handle on the regulation of these so-called "supplements", so they are allowed to flood the market with their false claims of improved memory and hardly any warnings about interactions with other drugs you ma...

 Ever lose something you had 15 seconds ago?  Yeah, me too. I do it all the time, and that title up there is what I say - in a very exasperated tone of voice - when it happens. Sometimes I say something more, but I'll leave that to your imagination. My problem is focusing. Is that an Alzheimer's Dementia symptom? Or is it just because I'm 71? It can be a symptom. It may be one of the 10 signs you're getting into the territory where you can hide your own Easter eggs.  I won't list them all here but I'll concentrate on the one that's bothering me the most: this one (focus). I'll provide a link to the other 9 at the bottom of this entry. It will be courtesy of the Alzheimer's Association, which always provides a wealth of information. I urge you to go to their site alz.org and bookmark it. All kidding aside though, things I once   enjoyed, I now have to force myself to do. I just now turned to look at my 6 string guitar. I need to practice my scales, bu...

 Are those of us with Alzheimer's related and other dementias, at a higher risk than someone who's healthier than us? This is a question I asked myself a few days ago and is the reason for this journal entry. Actually what I first asked was, "How has Covid slowed down important Alzheimer's research?", and that question is what led to the risk question. In this entry, I hope to provide a few more answers than I believed I would find. First off, if you  had Covid and survived, you are still likely to have after-effects from the virus. Loss of taste and smell being two of the most common. Another reason to get yourselves and/or your loved ones vaccinated. IMPORTANT: If you - like so many others - are waiting to get Covid and then get vaccinated ----- Who the hell put that  thought in your head??? First, you can't do it unless you self-quarantine for 10 days and by then your antibodies might be so weak they wouldn't be able to help you fight the virus and you ...

It is heartening to know we're international! I believe my readers who are furthest away include,  India, New Zealand, Viet Nam and of course, Germany, Sweden and the USA. Just joined are a couple of gaming friends from Montreal, Canada. And don't worry: All I can see is your location - nothing else!  IMPORTANT NOTE: If when  accessing the journal through your browser's address bar you get a notice saying the site is not secure, please check that you did NOT use the https prefix  For some reason Blogger goes bananas when that happens, and gives you that note. The site is SAFE and has been since 2008. Simply type wheretobud dot blogspot dot com WITHOUT the www. Thanks! Why is this important to me (your location, I mean)? Because it keeps my "creative juices" flowing. I sometimes sit here at my desk and write journal entries for three days hence. That never used to happen, so thank you! If I might ask one more favor from you, dear reader? Tell your friends about us....

A doctor got a call from a elderly blonde woman, who screamed “Doc, get over here, I’m in a lot of pain!” The doctor raced to the  woman’s house and saw that her ears were both badly burned. The doctor treated the burns, then asked her how it had happened. The woman said sheepishly, ”Well, I was ironing the clothes, when a friend of mine called me up. I was so dumb! Instead of reaching for the phone, I held the hot iron up to my left ear and burned it.” “Oh,” said the doctor. “Then, how did you burn the RIGHT ear?’ “Well,” the woman replied, “I had to call YOU, didn’t I?” ========================================================= Now before y'all jump me about being "politically incorrect", remember this Journal takes a lot of poetic license. That means if it's funny and it's about getting old and/or dementia AND it makes ME laugh, it may very well make it into the journal. No ruffling of anyone's "feathers" intended.  As a matter of fact, you...

 Overheard in my doctor's waiting room this morning after a patient showed up without a mask and was handed one by the nurse: "I wish folks would get over this mass hysteria and turn their tv's off !" He put the mask on,  but took forever to get it tied and even then left his nose exposed. My   2 cents? Put them in a Haz-Mat suit and take them through an ICU that has a ventilated patient in every bed, and let them read the signs on the bed which read "Covid 19". Because most of the patients will need sedation to be able to endure the endotracheal tube down their windpipe, this gentleman won't see a TV in the room. What he would see would be some family members tearfully saying their final "Goodbyes" and "I love you's". Do I sound like the "Ghost Of Christmas Future" to you? Well, so be it. This is the time for hoping that someone  will come to their senses and do the right thing. I mentioned on Facebook a few weeks ago, ...

 A year and a half ago, when I found out I had cancer of the prostate, I packed up all of my guitars (drums were already in their cases) thinking to save my wife the trouble when "The Day" gets here. I had forgotten all about some wonderfully talented friends of mine who can play rings around me on guitar (well, to be fair - I'm primarily a drummer) and can write a song at the drop of a hat. One of those friends -  James,  just needs a subject and off he goes! They all downplay their talents to the point of being aggravating, but I understand: they are artists in it for the love of playing and singing. They're not in it for the money, in other words. Recently, I asked them to write me a song about "Goals" (to call attention to the upcoming Walk To End Alzheimer's), and damned if they didn't come through for me within three days! I asked Jim for permission to feature his song here and with your permission and because I was so touched by what he wrote,...

If there were an ideal description of a "True Olympian", I would expect these ladies' photos to accompany the definition. In addition to bringing home a total of 7 medals (counting both Rio and Tokyo),, Simone opened up (and made us  aware) of something called "Air Awareness "   or "Twisties"  which are defined as a "sensation gymnasts can develop when they lose their sense of control in the air." Very scary terminology - especially when one considers one could end up paralyzed were he or she to lose that awareness. So my thanks to Ms. Biles for her candor in speaking of this. I empathized with her worried demeanor as she made the decision to finish with the Bronze medal, which must have meant more than the Gold. I include below a short clip of Simone finishing up on the beam and that smile at the end just says it all! I would be remiss if I did not mention the other athlete, Naomi Osaka. Ms. Osaka sadly was eliminated in the third round of t...

 Hello, Need a laugh and a smile? A friend sent me this video and I find myself in almost every line. Listen and see how many you  recognize Also, please don't forget to join my  "Walk To End Alzheimer's" . Just click on the link to donate or join my team! Mark Oct.16th on your calendar. Walk registration is at 9 am. Thanks Bill

 I've decided to turn this journal into a podcast effective 9.7.21. This will free up my readers to listen while washing dishes, the dog or their hair (which may make it harder to hear). I decided on this means of communication to finally "get with the program", as it were and provide y'all with a little more content. (More content because once I get started running my mouth, I can't always  stop easily) 😃 So look forward to my first podcast journal entry the Tuesday after our Labor Day Holiday. Thanks, Bill

As one might suspect, it is damned hard to diagnose a veteran with Alzheimer's-related Dementia. First you have to find us, then you have to hold on to us long enough to do some definitive tests. If we're on the street with substance abuse problems - good luck with that. And luck is what I had in doing some research for this journal entry. Even though I had my doubts I'd find what I needed (hard, mostly accurate figures), I googled "Veterans With Alzheimer's And Related Dementias (AD/ADRD)" and the search engine spewed out enough for me to create a surprisingly optimistic entry for my journal - most of it dating back to only March of 2021, Don't worry - I won't regurgitate what I found, but I will link you to at least two well-written articles and abstracts which will give us some answers. If you or a loved one has Alzheimer's or any of the related dementias, I encourage you to read these articles. They will: 1) inform you of your vet's homeles...

 I know: This ain't about dementia or cancer. What it is  about is a young American named Bobby Finke who exemplifies the American Spirit by giving it that extra "push" when it counted. My own  favorite Olympic sport is fencing, and I may write about that later, but right now, my "Star of The Show" is Bobby. When clicking on the below link, you may see the "Video Is Unavailable". Just click "Watch On YouTube" to see it. With 74 more days until "The Walk To End Alzheimer's" I hope this happens to us on October 16th. Not only do I plan for "Team Where To, Bud" to make our $100.00 goal, but we'll go all the way to $1,000.00!   Click the link below to join our team and/or donate. You can even walk from home! Thanks for reading, and Bobby Finke, YOU ROCK!   Go  here  to join the team and/or donate to The Walk.......

On Aging (Apologies To Dr. Seuss) I cannot see I cannot pee I cannot chew I cannot screw Oh, my God, what can  I do? My memory shrinks My hearing stinks No sense of smell I look like hell My mood is bad -- can you tell? My body's drooping Have trouble pooping The Golden Years have come at last The Golden Years can kiss my ass! ===================================================== =============================================== If you know the author, please let me know in the comments, and I will attribute. Thanks Bill Please don't forget to register and join my team here: The Walk To End Alzheimer's

.... who's just an acquaintance ? It seems simple when you think about it, doesn't it? Just make an imaginary mini-file cabinet and label accordingly? When you put it into perspective, however, it really isn't. Not in our culture, anyway. We don't use the word "acquaintance" enough. It's an awkward word - especially when you have to introduce the person in question to someone else: "Hey, John! I'd like to introduce you to an acquaintance of mine!" No, of course  you don't use the word in  front of the introductee (is that a word?). You might fudge a little and use "friend" instead, but revert back to an  acquaintance as soon as you can, maybe leaving the other guy wondering just what his or her role is . Sometimes you may feel you have an affinity or a bond with someone, but maybe that's just what you think is going on, so you try a little harder to see if there's any commonality. You open up a little. Could be ...

 Today, after speaking with West Georgia Walk chairperson Snapper Freeman, I committed to participating in this year's event which takes place on Hobbs Farm here in Carrollton, GA. on October 16th.-  9:00 am. My usual link at the bottom of the page - instead of taking you to the general home page for the walk - will take you instead to our team's page. The team name will be (you guessed it) "Where To, Bud?" (to a successful "Finish Line", we hope.) Since I don't know many of you personally, I decided to support myself as my own team. Should you decide to contribute, your donation will be counted toward the team's overall success. Also, if you wish to join the team, you may do so on the site. All are welcome. The link below will also allow you to form your own team and raise funds to support Alzheimer's research. It all counts, folks, and if you'd like to make it count for someone special in your life, you can dedicate your walk to honor that ...