I am back home from my last trip of the summer.  The cats even got in my suitcase when I unpacked, effectively letting me know that I am not going anywhere, anytime soon, without them!  I took Granddaughter Libby home after a marvelous summer together.  My friend and Bob's longtime secretary Judie went with me.  From Chattanooga, TN we went on to Hunstville, AL to see the space center, and then on to Memphis, TN for Elvis week.  We just totally unplugged from the world there, and relaxed and enjoyed the festivities for not just a week, but 10 days.  We took a day bus trip to Tupelo, Mississippi where Elvis was born and grew up.  Tupelo was much bigger than we thought it would be.  We enjoyed seeing the house he grew up in, the church where he learned to appreciate music and the hardware store where he bought his first guitar.  We made instant friends on the bus with sisters from the UK and did several things together and met up with them the rest of the week.
But now we are home to reality--having to fix our own meals instead of going to the scrumptious buffet every morning for breakfast and hitting the complimentary peanut butter and jellies  and bananas and milk and hot chocolate bar every evening in the hotel.  We are spoiled!
I went out to see Bob as soon as I could after getting home.  The first day he was having one of the days where he was sleepy and wouldn't react to me.  I should have had Libby there!  She could always get him to respond!  But everything was different at The Piper as well.  Two of my favorite residents had passed away very unexpectedly while I was gone.  One was Bill, the husband of my friend from the support group.  I will really miss Sheryl being there, and our happy chats together as we fed "our boys"!  The next day I went to see Bob he was awake and told me my hair looked nice.  I about fell over!  Then he proclaimed loudly "I AM A MAN".  I told him "I AM A WOMAN", and he laughed and laughed!  BUT!  I found out from the staff that they had caught him and Mickey holding hands while I was gone!  Mickey is a retired RN (Real Nuts, she told me when she was more cognizant.)  At least Bob knows how to pick RNs to care for him!  Mickey sits at Bob's table as she has to be fed and the staff can feed her and Bob at the same time.  She just sits there and smiles (now I notice she is smiling at Bob and that is why she is not focusing on eating her food.)  I also feed her if I am there feeding Bob.  Well that is the end of that--LOL!
I went to a seminar at The Piper before I left.  A radiologist that has an independent practice in Shawnee spoke about using stem cells to treat Alzheimer's.  His own father was one of his first patients.  He takes the stem cells out of the patient's own bone marrow and abdominal fat and then reinjects them IV.  He is not willing to do the double blind testing that requires using a placebo on half of the patients as he wants everyone to get the treatment.  Therefore, he cannot qualify for studies that would lead to approval and also get the treatment covered by insurance.  The pretesting is very expensive with Pet scans and lumbar punctures as he is trying to catch people in the early stage of the disease.  Long story short, his father ended up saying "stop, this is costing too much" and died, and another patient was not helped at all.  But 2 others he treated were helped significantly.  I know stem cell treatment is the thing now, and he acknowledges that it works better for diseases like COPD.  But it is being tried for a lot of things like arthritis, getting people's hopes up, but then having mixed results.  And if the stem cells are from another source like fetal umbilical cord blood, infections can occur, and ethical questions are raised.
I am going to leave you with food for thought, and I expect it will generate comments on Facebook or on my blog site.  Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (August 1, 2019) report that they can measure levels of the Alzheimer's protein amyloid beta in the blood and use such levels to predict whether the protein has accumulated in the brain.  When blood amyloid levels are combined with two other major Alzheimer's risk factors--age and the presence of the genetic variant APOE4--people with early Alzheimer's brain changes can be identified with 94% accuracy, the study found.  It goes on to say that such a test may become available at doctor's offices within a few years, but its benefits will be much great once there are treatments to halt the disease process and forestall dementia.  My question is--would you have the blood test?  I have thought much about it, since my father had Alzheimer's and there is a genetic risk.  But I have decided I would not have it.  I want to live every day to the fullest, and not have the threat of that hanging over my head--no pun intended.  I look forward to your responses!
I went to another seminar/luncheon last week for retired nurses that is held twice a year at the hospital.  The speaker's topic was on things you can do to prevent Alzheimer's.  I will leave that for next month's blog, but if you find you cannot wait until then, she recommended the book "The End of Alzheimer's" by Dale Bredesen.
Yours for the best possible life,
Betty