Ted Rall for October 25, 2019

Maybe…. twenty years from now, a doctor will accept the Nobel for medicine for his work on a therapy that prevents Alzheimer’s. In his speech he’ll say that he decided to go into geriatrics after reading Ted Rall’s heartbreaking Friday comics.

May it be so….And soon.

The best one can say is some facilities are better than others. And that’s not saying much at all.

Elderly care.. is often lacking the compassion that we think we are paying for.

This may be the most important topic you ever cover, Mr. Rall. Thank you for doing this.

Acceptance is the final stage of grief.

That sucks the nursing home reacted that way. When my Dad’s glasses were broken, the nursing home called me and asked me if I wanted them to arrange new glasses or whether I wanted to take care of it myself. They didn’t think he wouldn’t need them because of Alzheimer’s. But my dad was so used to having glasses his whole life, he would get distressed if he didn’t have them on. So they probably wanted him to stay calm and not get upset.

The worst is teeth. They are too confused to understand a trip to the dentist so their teeth just rot.

Mr Rall, thank you for addressing one of the emotional burdens that adult children go through with this terrible disease afflicting their parents. There are so many stressful hurdles in the caring for mentally disappearing parents. There are so many frustrations to deal with simply because even though we try to do the best we can for our stricken parents, we know that, so far, there is no cure… Hopefully, someday there will be a cure. Perhaps someday… Especially if your graphic depictions inspire the medical community to do the necessary research and work required to come up with a permanent cure for all of us and our dearly beloved afflicted family members. Thank you.

I read a fantastic book about aging about 6 years ago and it actually pushed me into volunteering with the handicapped in group homes. Members of my family are now reading it. It has very good info about helping the aging population toward the end of life.Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

There is a condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome that is associated with low vision. Because of the lack of visual input, the person’s brain makes up things that aren’t there. When this started happening to my mother, we were afraid that this was a stroke or some mental deterioration, but thankfully this wasn’t the case. Now that we know what this is, it isn’t as frightening and my mother has learned to deal with it.

It is distressing that hearing aids are NOT covered by Medicare at all. Loss of hearing, especially when it is combined with vision loss, can make a person feel very isolated and depressed. Many of the things they previously enjoyed are no longer available for them.

My mother went through much of this, though her glasses had been with her since grade-school, so her habits worked fine to get them on her face. The fact is that giving good personal care is expensive (because time consuming) and we children mostly cannot afford it. Even worse when the “client” cannot much (remember to) help herself. The result is what Rall’s bemoaning here: Efficient “care” that’s neither particularly good nor personal.

One of the small things that I learned to appreciate: My mother’s sense of taste had gotten so weak that the food she got actually tasted okay to her. I found it so bland and soft that it might as well have been pablum.

{{HUGS}} Ted :-(

My d-in-law works in a city run senior care centre here. She tells me of the “children” who visit regularly and pitch in with the parent’s care and entertainment as opposed to those who visit once in a blue moon then moan about the level of care given. Guess which children are most appreciated! Too many just dump a parent with dementia then vanish.

So real, so sad. Beautiful work.

Yeah, Mom was in the worst shape I’ve ever seen, yesterday, confused by everything.