@emyliander, Greetings and good afternoon, Sarah. You made it to the top of my list today. Just teasing.....I have been trying to imagine walking in your shoes for a day.

If it is ok with you I will use Sarah. It is a bit of a good memory. Living in Hawaii, I decided to finally adopt a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Bringing them in from the mainland required 3-month isolation. Many doggies died from kidney disease because they had to use their cage.

Bringing a Cavalier in from Australia was a 24-hour hold. So...I soon have an Australian puppy named Sarah. Only problem, Sarah as a name doesn't work. Before her native blessing, we had to change it to Kala, Hawaiian for Sarah. Remember, there is no "S" in the Hawaiian language. So Sarah is sweet memories of my first Cavalier and how much I loved her.

It is probably getting very challenging for you. Just living with uncertainty......can create anxiety. It is bad enough when your memoryless moments create anxiety. Have you and your husband had a good chat about how the household will deal with the realities of now.....divide up the tasks and share in the planning? Does he help with your daughter?

Fishing won't happen for a while. They are spawning right now. Is there any news on your house sale and your move or did everything screech to halt.

Does your memory let you down when it comes to math? Wow....I have to stay focused. And another thing while I'm at it.....do you find background music disruptive? I use music to mask the tinnitus in my right ear. I have to turn it up a bit because I don't hear well out of my left ear which gets drowned out by the tinnitus crickets in the right ear. Then if I try to concentrate (LOL).......all of those other things are way too distracting.

I am laughing now, just reading it over. Can't believe it is true. We have to do a lot of adapting. I hope you are adapting to the refreshing nature of spring?
What are you doing for yourself at this time? I am applauding positive steps in practicing self-compassion.

Be safe and secure. You are still on my list and in my thoughts.
Chris

Hi Chris, Being on lock down ( as I call it ) is hard, especially for our mentally handicapped daughter who usually would be at program each workday, it’s challenging to try and keep her occupied for part of the day and work on the house at the same time, especially when I can’t take her anywhere.
Last night while cooking supper I put our dinner plates on the back burner to warm up from the oven vent and was cooking mushrooms on the front burner. All of a sudden the bottom plate exploded all over the place, and my mushrooms weren’t cooking. You guessed it.
I’m worried about my son and his wife who live in NY. It’s turning out that the virus is easier to catch than we first thought. I know everyone has the same worries and I feel bad for everyone. My sister in law in Spain sends funny videos which help, and I pass them on.
How are you doing, I wish my husband could go fishing for a while.
Thank you for your company.

I have the exact same issues. Mine was diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. Especially the cognitive deficits and the eye issues are hallmark signs of the disease. It took me 10 years to get the correct diagnosis. If I can help you in any way, please feel free to reach out to me. I wish you the very best.

today our children came for my husbands 80th birthday ,our kids are college professors, one 28 year old grandson and his wife. The conversations went like this, "do you remember what's his name? Used to live on what's that street that was just right off highway something" Remember the guitar player that was popular, oh you remember, he had a mustache and we saw him in Nashville" I have taken Xanax for 30 years, three of us take omeprazole, one takes a pill for epilepsy. Docs tell me mine is stress related, I have a brain tumor, my husband never took a pill in his life so I don't worry about it. I asked the doc about omeprazole and she said forget everything they said about it, new studies show it doesn't cause memory loss. Everyday things change.

Hi Chris, hope you are doing ok during this pandemic, who would have imagined that we would be going through this. I hope your family has kept well. I have two Grandchildren who graduated from HighSchool, all their senior activities were cancelled. Another came home from college early to finish out the term. My Grandson got a new job and about a month later was laid off, as were all people hired within the past 6 months. Another Granddaughter starts college this fall if everything is back to normal.
Our house is sold and we move out June 12th, we don’t have a place to go to yet, something will workout. My daughter has been home, I took her out of her program before they closed it, now they have opened again but I haven’t sent her back, we still have a number of people in Maine getting diagnosed each day.
Selling the house and going through the inspection was nerve wracking, the first day on the market 3 people came to see it, of course we had to get the 2 cats ,dog, and the three of us out of the house each time. We didn’t spend much time at home that day. The first person bid the highest, over what we were asking and will pay in cash, so that part went well.
We’ve all had our doctor and dentist appointments cancelled and I never did get an appointment to check my memory, I can give them a call again and explain that we are moving, I’m not sure they are even open yet. If it doesn’t get done I’ll have to start all over again in NY........find a PCP, get a referral and wait again.
My husband and I have had a stressful time with each other, a lot of work to get done on the house and yard, he has a problem with the muscle on his hip replacement pulling away from the bone. Will probably have to have surgery again to reattach it. This has all made him quite irritable and he continues to get impatient with me when I don’t remember things he’s told me. “You don’t listen to me “ which is upsetting to me. But I get through each day with a little help from my friends and mostly thru God
My last brother in Australia has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor, is 85 but otherwise in good health, he says they are a little reluctant to do surgery because of his age so I don’t know yet what they will do.
My flowers seem to be extra pretty this year so I’ve been enjoying them, we’ve had some nice warm days, the birds are all back and singing happily so all is not lost.
Sorry this letter hasn’t been uplifting, I hope that you too are enjoying the Spring and warmer weather, sunny days help a lot.
Stay safe, Sarah.

@emyliander, Good afternoon, Sarah. It's been a few weeks since I got your update. You do cover the waterfront very well. I appreciate every word.

The first thing I loved was imagining your extra pretty flowers. Take time every day to put your feet on the earth and focus on something beautiful. I also love listening to all the birds. The beautiful Piliated screeches, the Eagle has a gentle whistle.

My heart goes out to you for all of your work to sell the house. Sounds like it worked.....the very first buyer.....and cash. Wow!

And, the most distressing thing is to learn about the difficulty within your marriage. I know it would be difficult to find a therapist right now as you prepare to leave. I am wondering if there is a self-help series of exercises or better yet a Zoom encounter option. If you think that might work......let me know and I will see what I might be able to find.

It is sad to see that because of a lack of understanding of the cognitive issues that interfere, you become fearful of not remembering something. We, my life partner and I, have an understanding that works pretty well. We even rehearse. If I need help in a conversation, I say "Jay, please help me with the name of the person who came to fish with us last year". I have to give him a little more info in my request. When I get it right, he gets it right, and no one would ever know that i completely forgot the name.

We are very open about my "disabilities" and we don't feel like we have to explain everything. And now for the chuckle......I have tinnitus in my right ear and compromised hearing in the left hear. If the head in the middle ever gives up on me...........

Be safe and wear your mask, be protected and free.
Chris

I too have taken Klonopin 0.5mg daily for many years, it is a small dose but it’s the only way I can keep my emotions in control without crying at any unexpected time of the day. I also have memory problems as I’ve written about before.
What will you do, stop the Klonopin? It’s not a choice I have made so far.
I tried taking Buspar, it didn’t help me.
Have you been formally tested for your memory problems? COVID 19 delayed my appointment for testing and now I have moved to NY and have to start over again.
I hope you can find an answer to this dilemma and would be interested to know what it will be.

@helenfrancis . You are so right . Research is most important with any problems . I look it up if the Dr doesn't give me a satisfactory answer . I use the pharmacist for med information and interactions since they have all my meds. Very good source also . Drugs.com is a good one online

@helenfrances Yes I found it as we can't get out now so I use it every time I get a new med .

Hi @emyliander, how are you? It's been awhile since we heard from you.

@helenfrances, I'm so glad you got the technical issues worked out and were able to log back in. Happy to have you back.

@artscaping, let's get this discussion going again. I miss your posts and conversation here.