Alzheimer's

Thursday, January 21, 2010

13 year old poet and more

I'm feeling better and want to thank you for your kind words and thoughts. Any one who has had fusion in the neck knows this is going to take a long time to recover. With my lap top in bed with me I was sent this poem from Bob DeMarco at The Alzheimer's Reading Room. I felt I needed to share it with others. This young man is very insightful, and has written words I'm sure all of us have felt as caregivers.

Dementiaby Max Wallack
It gallops in silently on powerful hoofs
Snatching sweet, precious, forgotten memories
Turning true-blue loyal friends into treacherous strangers
Clogging synapses with emptiness
Crumbling trust into excruciating paranoia
With bleak darkness comes the anxious wakefulness of broad daylight
And bitter terror encompasses every living fiber
"If I sleep, where will I be when I wake up?"
The compulsion to run, the paralysis of fear
Mature, child-like dependence
Retracing youthful development, but in rapid reverse
Cureless medicines, meaningless conversations
Leading up to the inevitable
Posted by at 7:36 AM
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1 comments:

  1. Hi Rose! I am glad you are on the road to recovery, I have been waiting for you to come back so we could "meet"! That is an awesome poem, and hits home at so many levels. In Nov. of 08, my mom was real sick for several days. During that time I could not get her meds in her. She has never been on anything for her mind, but what she did take, the side affects, kept her peaceful and quiet. Well, as she began to feel better, get stronger, we saw just what the dementia had been doing to her. In the middle of the night, I heard all this talking through the monitor by me. I went in to check on her and she was just a - talking away! Mom, has never been a chatterer! I went back to bed and continued to listen, it shook me up actually. As I lay there a poem began to form in my mind and I got up and went to the computer to write it for my journal (which is now on my blog). In just a few minutes it all came together, based on what I heard her saying. I would like to share it with you and your readers if I may?

    The Tower of "Babble"

    Where has she gone
    Is it far is it near
    What has she heard
    Voices loud, Voices clear
    Makeup and ice
    Water and cake
    That girl over there
    Oh that’s a mistake!
    Words after words
    Some struggle, some true
    A lifetime of memories
    Now are her enemies
    Unassembled, Disarrayed
    Not forming properly
    Makes her dismayed
    Who am I?
    Even in the fog she knows
    This can not break
    The love that she shows.

    (November, 2008)

    Once she was able to take her meds, this all went away and she became peaceful and subdued. It was interesting to have her chattering like that, but foreign. The side affects of the meds actually keep her at what is more normal for her.

    Thanks for letting me share, and I wish you a quick recovery, I will be back to chat again! Donna
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