Temperatures below zero here. It’s a stay indoors and write day for me. If you have to go out please be careful.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
A wintery day
Posted in Uncategorized on January 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Where to stop writing
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cycling, exercise, motivation, problems, Writing on January 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Normally I leave my writing at a happy, exciting place so I want to go back to it next time but last time I didn’t. I left it with a problem. A big problem which would involve altering four or five chapters.
Yesterday we braved the cold and went out for a cycle ride. The sun was shining and during the ride I was able to see that what I needed to correct wasn’t really that big. I’m delighted to say that when I got home I was able to do the alterations.
Note to self (and other writers): don’t leave your writing at a problematic or boring stage as you won’t want to go back to it as quickly as you would if you left it at a good place!
Exercise today
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Covid 19, cycling, exercise, seafront, Tier 4, walking, Writing on January 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Being in the highest tier (tier 4) it can be difficult to get motivated and do things. Although we have to stay home we are allowed out to work, attend doctors, dentists, hospital appts etc and, thankfully to exercise. It’s too cold for us to cycle today, so, despite the freezing temperature, we went for a walk. Not far as it was too cold but it got us out for fresh air and exercise. Now home in the warm and getting ready to write. Wherever you are during this pandemic please keep yourself safe.
Why the cat kept getting fatter
Posted in Dementia, Uncategorized, tagged #BillytheCat, #BRACE, #Bristol, #Together4Dementia, cat, dementia, Sir Martyn Lewis, Wendy Mitchell on November 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Wendy Mitchell on living with dementia and why her cat kept getting fatter
Wendy Mitchell and Sir Martyn Lewis at the BRACE conference
Wendy, who is 62, was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2014. Earlier this year, her book, Somebody I used to Know, became a Sunday Times best seller and Radio 4’s book of the week. Her account of being diagnosed with dementia and how she has coped with it has inspired many.
She spoke at the recent BRACE conference #Together4Dementia in Bristol and read her favourite extract from her book about her daughter’s cat Billy who kept getting fatter and fatter.
‘Billy pads into the kitchen performing a tiny dance in front of my feet before he finds the patch of sunshine on the kitchen tiles. He flops down on it while I scratch the back of his ears while he purrs his approval. I shake some biscuits into his bowl and he gets up and crunches on them noisily. He’s only allowed a few as Gemma has put him on a diet. She’s not sure why he’s put on so much weight recently. Even the vet commented on it.
‘I make myself a cup of tea and as the kettle boils, I feel Billy’s tail curling around my legs . I glance at his empty bowl. ‘Ah Billy, have I forgotten to feed you ?” He looks up with big, sad eyes, his purr audible over the boiling kettle that switches itself off, and I shake a few more biscuits into his bowl.’
Wendy goes to greet her daughter who has just come home from work. ‘Gemma and I catch up on the day. Twenty minutes must pass by like that and then Billy jumps down from my lap and sniffs at his empty bowl and sits, staring at it. “Ah no, I must have forgotten. Gemma looks at him, unsure.
‘“The vet said Billy has to lose weight; he must be getting fed somewhere else because his diet isn’t working. You are only giving him a few biscuits when you’re on Billy duty, aren’t you mum?”’
‘“Oh yes, I’m sure I do,” as I shake more biscuits into his bowl.’
‘I even see the positives in a bummer of a diagnosis’
Wendy’s account is full of humour and she talks at the conference about being a “glass half full person” saying: “I am a positive person so I even see the positives in a bummer of a diagnosis”.
Wendy used to work as a manager for the NHS at a hospital in Leeds and reveals “I used to be renowned for having a brilliant memory but it started letting me down badly. I came out of my office and I forgot where I was.
“I had so many different diagnoses at the beginning. They said it was stress or the menopause when I had already had the menopause. I knew it wasn’t stress as I am not that type of person.
“After 18 months of different memory tests, there was a SPECT can which showed a slowness in my brain.”
She is determined to reduce the stigma around the disease and encourage others to take part in clinical trials and research.
Billy the cat who kept getting fatter
“People think they have to talk to us differently,” she says. She now has had dementia for four years and still lives independently at home, where she is determined to stay for as long as possible, saying: “Living in a care home with many other people and other voices would be very distressing for me. But at the same time I don’t want my daughters to look after me as I want them to remain as my daughters.”
She has come up with strategies for living at home and says: “There are advantages to living alone as if somebody moves things about, they don’t exist for me any longer.
“At the moment I am coming up with solutions to enable me to stay living on my own at home. I have many adaptations which help me.”
She says “talking is the most powerful thing you can do to allay people’s fears when you have dementia. Talking is the most powerful thing I and my daughters can do.”
Wendy has found peer support from other people living with dementia to be hugely beneficial, saying: “We share solutions all the time and we listen to each other. We are non-judgmental and we are all going through the same thing. If one of us forgets who the prime minister is, it really doesn’t matter.”
Wendy finds images speak more to her than words so in her blogs she uses a lot of photos. “Photographs make me happy. People never take photos of people in a bad mood. When I feel anxious I go into my memory room which is filled with photographs and I look at them.
“I do travel around the country a lot going to conferences on dementia but people see me and think it is easy for me.
“But I have a pink file that tells me where I am going and has details on everything. It also has a plan B as trains don’t always go right. My Twitter friends are amazing and they will tell me what train to get if my train is cancelled.” Wendy admits that: “When I walk out of here today I will forget the details but I will remember the emotions.
Losing memories is like losing precious possessions
“Every day I lose a memory. For me when I lose memories every day, it is like losing my precious possessions every day.”
Wendy writes a blog Which Me Am I Today as she says: “It will hopefully convey the helplessness of those diagnosed with dementia, as there is no cure – the end is inevitable.
“However, I’m also hoping I can convey that, although we’ve been diagnosed, people like me still have a substantial contribution to make; we still have a sense of humour; we still have feelings. I’m hoping to show the reality of trying to cope on a day-to-day basis with the ever-changing environment that dementia throws at those diagnosed with the condition. Living as well as you can with dementia is all about adapting. Adapting to new ways to enable us to live better for longer with dementia.
“I can type as though dementia never entered my world as that part of my brain has not yet been affected, but that often works against me as people question my diagnosis. All I can say is, live a day in my shoes and I’m sure the reality will dawn.
“What I want is not sympathy. What I want is simply to raise awareness.”
To read Wendy’s blog click here
16-Nov-18 Article By: Sue Learner
An enjoyable writing weekend
Posted in Uncategorized on May 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Alzheimer’s charity launches new website to help children understand dementia
Posted in Alzheimer's Research UK, Uncategorized, tagged children, dementia alzheimer's research uk on January 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »
A new website has been launched to help children understand dementia, after a poll revealed that almost a third of parents say their children have been impacted by the condition.
Alzheimer’s Research UK has launched a website called ‘Dementia Explained’, designed to help children understand dementia. The launch of the website follows the results of a YouGov poll commissioned by the charity which revealed that 29 per cent parents have children who have felt the impact of the condition of a loved one.
The Dementia Explained homepage
Chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, Hilary Evans, said: “There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK and, as large as this number is, it is far from the complete picture. Dementia doesn’t just affect individuals, it impacts whole families and communities. Despite how common it is, there are still a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding dementia. For children, especially those with a close relative like a grandparent or parent with the condition, it can be a particularly difficult experience.
“Dementia Explained uses engaging content that will appeal to children of different ages to demystify dementia and explain why and how the condition can affect someone. It’s important for young people to appreciate that changes in the way that a family member may be behaving are nobody’s fault, least of all theirs, but the result of changes affecting how the brain works. Educating the next generation about dementia is critical if we are to overcome the stigma that still surrounds the condition today.”
The Dementia Explained website provides child-friendly resources that focus on the ways people living with dementia can change and the impact this can have on families.
The website contains resources, such as videos, interactive games and stories narrated by broadcaster Edith Bowman. All resources have been designed to help young people to learn about the brain and how it is affected by diseases like Alzheimer’s.
For more information on Dementia Explained, visit: www.dementiaexplained.org