Cindy's Life Updates with Frontotemporal Dementia: March 2018

Our Dementia Story About Bringing Lightness Into Darkness

March 29, 2018

I have come to learn that through the years going through dementia you will continually have jaw dropping moments. You will think to yourself over and over "Did I just really see that?", or "Did I just really hear that?". The moments can break your heart, make you laugh, or a combination of those two.

Within the last year, or so, that my mom was still living in her home, I received a call from her. She told me that her power went out. I don't remember the conversation word for word. I think I had to guess that her power was out from how she was trying to explain it to me. I told her that I'd come right over. I wanted to make sure she was okay.

There were TWO eye opening moments when I arrived at her home. Two things that I did not expect.

I arrived at my mom's home and used my key to unlock my mom's door. I opened the door to find my mom sitting on her couch in pitch darkness. She was just sitting there staring forward.

When the power goes out people usually run to find a flashlight or they light a candle. My mom did not do that. Her dementia didn't allow her to do that. I did it for her. I got a flashlight out, that was already located in the room she was in, and turned it on.

My mom had been watching tv when the power went out. That's what my mom would always be doing. I had the flashlight on that brought light to the darkness. My mom all the sudden picked up the tv remote, and kept trying to turn on the tv. She kept trying to press the on button. She tried to do it harder with a squinted face. She did this over and over again. It took us awhile to convince her it wasn't going to work because the power was out. This was eye opening to me because even though the power was out, it didn't register to her, that the tv wouldn't work.

I checked with the power company and the power wasn't going to come on for a few hours. I convinced my mom that she should probably just go to bed. I got her ready for bed. She had a battery operated lantern by her couch (bed). I'll leave the couch bed for another story one day.

She awoke to her power back on the next morning.

The lesson I learned from this day is . . . . .

I learned this day that many times there are people out there sitting/ living in darkness, and they need some help to bring light into their world.

Help bring lightness into someone's darkness today!

Visit someone, reach out to someone, be kind to someone, give a smile to someone, give a hug to someone, compliment someone, and there's so many more ways to do this. This will make a difference in their life!

Tips & Tricks

Ways How We Cut My Mom's Hair - Frontotemporal Dementia

March 26, 2018

I recently noticed that my mom's hair was getting harder to comb, and it was harder to wash her hair with it being longer. It was time for another haircut!

I scheduled Paul's & Natalie's FTD Haircutting/Beauty Services to come cut my mom's hair. Okay, so we really don't have a business named that, but if we did, maybe, we would name it that.

We grabbed the scissors, combs, and hair ties! We headed over to assisted living to cut my mom's hair.

I designated my husband, Paul, early on to be my mom's hairdresser. He has helped cut my mom's hair every time she's needed her haircut since her diagnosis with FTD. He always just trims her hair up, and it's easy for him to do. We decided early on that it would just be easier to trim her hair ourselves, instead of taking her somewhere, to get her hair cut.

My mom has the Behavioral Variant of FTD, so we have learned early on that sometimes it is hard to take her out in public. She can say stuff that is not filtered about others, she can laugh at others, and sometimes it is just easier to do stuff on our own, than to deal with the Behavioral Variant behaviors, that my mom has.

Here are some helpful tips that might come in handy, if you are wanting to cut your loved ones hair to save time, money, and your sanity - (and if you want to pay for someone to cut your loved ones hair, I wouldn't blame you for wanting to do that, instead, to save your sanity.)

1. The first thing we did was search on YouTube something similar to "how to cut hair yourself". We had no idea how to cut hair. This was very helpful and gave us ideas on how to cut hair. This is the video that Paul watched to give him simple hair cutting ideas. It has over 1.5 million views, so I think everyone is getting simple hair cutting ideas from this video.

2. All you really need is wet hair, scissors, a comb, hair ties, a towel, a chair, a head holding still, and some patience.

3. Anyone that is familiar with FTD knows that time is valuable. 10 minutes or less is a must for cutting hair with Dementia (that is in my opinion only). My mom would rather be doing something else than to be sitting still getting her hair cut. Time is of the essence when it comes to dementia, and cutting hair.

And voilà..... My mom had trimmed hair in 10 minutes or less!
Check out our other hair cutting posts that we have documented during my mom's FTD diagnosis below.

Haircut Time

Haircut Time - Take Two (Pictures are included)

As always, my prayers and thoughts go out to everyone who is dealing with Dementia in their life right now! It is such a hard thing to watch and go through! ❤❤

The Beginning Stages

Dementia Note Written By My Mom in 2008

March 13, 2018

I have found many notes that my mom wrote prior to her dementia diagnosis. She would write her frustrations down sometimes.

This note above was written in the year 2008. My mom was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia in 2014. This shows that she was struggling for many years, and not understanding what was wrong with her.

These are just some of the signs of Dementia and a sign that something might not be right.

I share this in hopes that this helps other learn about this disease, and to help shed light on what goes on in someone's mind who is going through this.