Sunday, March 28, 2010

"Lois Loves Allen and Allen Loves Lois and I Love Allen"

We rolled Peggy to dinner tonight.  We like to go to Hugo's restaurant which is right by Sunrise, so Allen met us there and I thought it might be easier to walk with Nana in her chair.  I was pretty stressed, because the street is SO busy and we have to cross quite a few and go under a highway, the girls held hands as I held on to the wheelchair, Sunny bent down to pick up a dime crossing and I really yelled at her like a fearful mother lion protecting her cub.  I hate the cars in LA!  
 Peggy and I sat across the table from Allen, who sat between the girls.  All she could talk about was how much the girls loved him as they squirmed around in their chairs and acted like robots and dropped  things, and poked Daddy.  And I kept scolding them to sit down, and be polite and all that mother lion stuff.  Peggy doesn't always remember the details, but she does know emotions (and to take the butter knife away from the two year old) and she knew that we are a happy family, and instead of being stressed about the restaurant,  I saw my world through her eyes, and smiled when she said
 "Lois loves Allen and Allen loves Lois, and that's all there is to it."

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Alzheimer's Reading Room: Five Foods That Might Help Prevent Dementia, Cancer and Heart Disease

Alzheimer's Reading Room: Five Foods That Might Help Prevent Dementia, Cancer and Heart Disease

Beets!
Sardines!
Curcumin?
Pumpkin!
Cinnamon!

A St. Patrick's Day to remember

Today was a really fun day! Here are the Peggy's dancing to Bing Crosby singing Peg O' My Heart.  



And Sunny jumped in with an Irish jig all her own.



And for even more green fun click here....
A St. Patrick's Day to remember

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Peggy Lu is here!!

I am so happy, but my feet are even happier!!!  We stole away to Happy Feet, a foot massage place to get some  relaxation and stress release.  It was so fun, I felt like crying when we sat down.  I love Peggy Lu, she cares so much, and we feel the same way about Peggy and it is just such a relief to have her here, even for just a little while....

Monday, March 15, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Paul came to visit!

And he finally came for his clothes!  Thanks for visiting Paul, you made her day.  
and Gidgets!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Reading

Yesterday the girls and I went over to Peggy's after school.  My mom was in such a good mood.  She is feeling so much better, hasn't had vicadin for 4 days and didn't complain of any pain.  As a matter of fact, when we called David and he asked her about her fall, she insisted that she never fell and had NO idea what he was talking about.  The up side to alzheimer's.

Peggy really engaged with Gidget today reading books on the couch.  She looked at me and said,"Your so nice, and good to me"  I told her, it's because I had a good Mom.

And then I found this picture of Peggy reading to Sunny when she was one....6 years ago, and I think of her reading to me when I was little, and well...that's how it goes.  I have a good Mom.

Sunny and Gidget were here

Virtual candlelight rally

I lit a virtual candle for my mom today. Here is your chance to double your giving in the battle against alzheimer's.
I urge you to join me and visit the Alzheimer's Association today!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bouncing Balls

So, we stopped at a toystore on the way to Peggy's.  We have some birthday's coming up, and well...why not.  We love toys.   They had these great rubber balls in really bright colors.   Real rubber, not the princess or Dora plastic kind.  The girls loved them, so I thought they might like them at Sunrise too.  They sure did.  We were all bouncing and catching and banging them around.  It was amazing, everyone was smiling.  I was a little nervous..."don't play ball in the house" kept going through my head.  But it really engaged some of the residents, who usually aren't.  I think we might even be able to start our own team.  The Studio City Suns!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

By the way... stopping the Galantamine stopped the runny nose.

Goodbye Everyone

Goodbye Everyone
watch Gidgey say goodbye to all her friends at Sunrise. 
This lady here used to be an art professor at UCLA

Forgetting about the pain

Sunday I used a McDonald's chocolate shake
to get my mom up and out of bed.















Today I used Gidget.

Peggy Fell Down...

She's okay.  She's sore.  She's upset.  Nothing is broken.  Probably a muscle pull or strain.  We were up on the 3rd floor to go to a Mardi Gras party downstairs.   Sunny got all dressed up, she loves a party or just to have a chance to wear lipstick.  Peggy was on the couch, the other's were starting to go down.  She always says "not right now" if anyone asks her to do something, but usually we can get her to move, sometimes.   She got up slowly, she was a little unsteady... so we got her walker and she held on.  I turned around, and she let go...
She yelled and said things like "oooooh we broke our back", and "why is this happening to us", and "it hurts" and "we're scared and don't like this".  She wouldn't let any of us touch or move her.  Sunrise called the paramedics, I called my dear friend Jacki who came and got Sunny in minutes.  I was stuck, my mom's head was on my lap, and Sunny saw the whole thing.  So she ran into Nana's room, and made her a feel better card...and went home with Jacki.

We went to St. Joe's.  They had to give her an iv for the pain meds, because she wouldn't lay on her back to take the x-ray.  Her position, her veins and her brain were not cooperating.  The fifth time with the help of 2 RN's they got it in her.  The fifth time I looked at one of them and said "I hate to tell you this, but I don't feel so good."  and almost passed out?!!  I sat down, had some water, let Peggy's pain medicine do it's job and shaped up.  She went in for lots of x-rays, Jacki brought me a sandwich.  Don't you guys all wish you had a Jacki in your life?  I'm so lucky.  And the doctor said, try and get her up and dressed and she can go home with a prescription for vicadin.  Really?  You want us to get her up when she wouldn't even let us touch her?  Okay?  Well, she did it, she didn't even remember she fell, she was just really really tired.  We got her a wheel chair, and we got her in the car.  Alla was waiting for me with another wheel chair it was 12:30, and I asked her if she thought I should come up, she said.   "I think your children need you now, goodnight."  And I felt lucky, again, this dumb disease and this horrible thing that's happening to my mom, made me feel lucky.  Lucky to have all these wonderful people in the world to help us through it all.