Well, brace yourself, Effie, I'm going to go there today! Having the sex talk with Mom may not have been as funny as the line delivered on Mrs. Doubtfire by Robin Williams, but it certainly brought about another reality check. Even though Mom is now living in stage six of the seven stages of Dementia, we still had to have - "the talk." Dementia may cause the loss of many cognitive functions, but the natural human response to sexuality and intimacy remains. I experience the mo

Dementia is such a broad term to explain well over 100 different ways our brain can deteriorate, causing the loss of basic functions. One of the first ways I began to understand the term and what was happening to Mom was to grasp the stages of Dementia. A couple of years ago, when I realized Mom was in stage 6 of 7 stages, I feared experiencing the inevitable. Would I be able to recognize the signs of dying? Would I be able to fulfill wishes as described in her Advanced Direc

Caregivers are created to fulfill many different needs, and sometimes it is caring for more than one person. Caregivers often do not acknowledge they are a caregiver because of the relationship with their loved ones. During the struggles of our journey, we tend to create a mindset of lack and resentment which focuses our journey on what is impossible rather than what is possible. I wanted to have Meriam Boldewijn, a dear friend, who was on the previous episode titled Caregive

I already knew the one constant thing in life is change, which means we must learn how to adapt over and over. For caregivers, change is difficult without a network of support. For life to be a little less scary and lonely, we must become socially and culturally competent together. I thought cultural diversity meant identifying all groups as significant for many years, but not acknowledging true differences until the desire to bond with like minds became a priority. Surely,

As Mom's mixed dementia progresses, I have had to continually adapt to changes in mood swings even when I cannot understand what is causing the change. For me, adaption looks like a detective working on solving a case. Only our case changes daily. Because FTD (Frontotemporal Dementia) is more related to behavioral challenges than memory, it is hard to pinpoint what might trigger a flare-up one day to the next. Knowing is one thing, but living through the decline is still sho