MsCowgirl's Journal

Our parents have had the fortune to see their children grow into adults, marry their loved ones and watched the family grow with each grandchild and now great-grandchild that came along. And Ed and I have had the pleasure of seeing our parents live a full and happy life into their old age. But with both sets of parents being in their late 80's now, life just gets that little bit harder.

I'm going to be absent from DS for a while. My poor dad who is 87 is rapidly developing dementia and in the last few weeks it has taken a marked deterioration. Not only has he resisted in giving up his drivers license but he as gone "missing" twice now. The last time, after four and a half hours, he had no recollection of where he had been or what he's been doing.

He woke mum up the other morning at 1.30am with a cup of tea and piece of cake (bless him). He's lost his sense of time/day and he thought mum should wake up after having her afternoon nap. Mum also found him fully clothed at 4.00am the other morning about to go out and mow the lawn. Imagine the neighbours reaction to that! Poor thing - he is slipping in and out of reality and sheer confusion is setting in. He's twice withdrawn money from his bank, only to lose it by the time he got home.

Dad has been a full time carer of my mum, who also 87 and has only 10% vision. So for the last few years, mum has been dads memory bank and dad has been mum eyes. Sadly, the time has come for them to no doubt leave their home of 41yrs and go into assisted living in a residential care facility that provides dementia care. For years my parents had their name down for a facility and when they turned 80 they proudly announced that they took their names off because they had decided they were better off at home! So now we have to start the process all over again.

So we are packing our bags, organising house-sitters who can feed animals, water and keep things ticking over here while we are away. I'm not sure when we'll be back, this could take some time and moving dad out of his familiar home environment to stay with us here, could be more detrimental than helpful. I'm not sure how I'll go with the travelling etc, but there comes a times when the whole RA thing has to be put on the back-burner for a while - flare or no flare.

And to all those lovely friends I have made on the forum, and in no order of preference, I'll miss you heaps, I hope you stay well and will look forward to catching up with you as soon as I get back. We are heading off first thing on Saturday, so I'll only get a couple of chances to message between now and then.

Big Get Well wishes to Lynne, Jamie, Betsy, Jilly and Kimberly and Peachy good luck with your upcoming surgery.

Best wishes for your new futures to Tess, bundymum, Hoomar, Baily, rattles

I'll really miss catching up with Dottie, Joey, knowyourself, Dalraida, Vchen - I hope all goes well for you and I'm certainly going to miss my daily "fix" of giggles from Bistro too.

And of course the same applies to all good buddies on DS.

When I get back I hope my Humira is working (a lot), I'm 10lbs lighter and I'm sure I'll just be a slight bit nuttier!!!! All the best everyone. The chariot awaits!!