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In this first episode I will give you some of background information and introduce you to the people that this podcast is about. I'll also introduce you to how we have survived Alzheimer's disease so far.

It's my hope that you'll be able to connect with us, thus, be able to relate your experiences to ours in doing this. I hope that you can learn from our experiences.

Why did I decide to do this podcast? It's about you. I wanted to help you in dealing with your loved one's dementia. I've learned a lot of things along the way here. A lot of it was the hard way, and I hope that some of the things that I've picked up along the way may be of use to you.

About a year and a half ago, when I finally decided to move Shanna to a memory care facility after I couldn't take care of her anymore, I had done it for four years, 24 /7. I decided to get some grief counseling. I took grief counseling sessions for about nine months. And one of the things that she taught me was that as we help other people with the things that we have struggled with, we heal.

And I have learned that along the way, I've dealt with caregiver burnout, we survived the COVID pandemic together. The decision to put her in memory care was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. And then once she was there after almost a year, I made another tough decision to move her to a better facility. And that turned out really good. But watching my wife go through all of the stages of the disease and all of the challenges that it brought, both of us was a very interesting experience.

This disease has brought my wife and I closer than ever together in the last four or five years. Tremendous things have changed all for the better, even while we're struggling with the disease. And this is our story. My hope is in telling our story, it'll be helpful to you, and you'll be able to face your own challenges with a degree of hope and be able to find peace. Like I have found.

So how does one survive alzheimer's? As you probably know, Alzheimer's is a fatal disease, but what do I mean by surviving it? Well, I looked up in the dictionary what the word survival means, and some of the things that I really liked was it means to remain or to continue in existence.

How do I continue to live as I watch the person I love the most in my life slowly fade away? How do I get along or remain healthy, happy and unaffected in spite of some circumstances? That's another definition of survive. That's what I mean by surviving Alzheimer's I will tell you how my wife has dealt with this in episodes to come and how I dealt with it.

Well, thanks for listening and be sure to follow the surviving Alzheimer's podcast. The surviving. Alzheimer's. Podcast is brought to you by Ascending Minds, LLC.

Link to “The Surviving Alzheimer’s Podcast” Facebook page.

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This episode takes us back in time, back to a time when Alzheimer's disease was not part of our life.

I will answer the following questions in this episode.

· Looking back, was there any hint of what might be lurking in our future?
· Were there early signs that something was not quite right with my wife's cognitive abilities?
· If I could travel back in time, what would I tell myself as I started my caregiver journey?

Some of the topics that are covered are

· Our backstory – life before Alzheimer’s
· Working with doctors in the early days of the journey
· How I dealt with repeated questions
· What helped me to adopt a healthier perspective

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In today's episode, we'll explore one of the early and often ongoing challenges that we experience as a caregiver, dealing with denial.

I'll also share with you our experience on how we dealt with getting Shanna to stop driving once it was no longer safe for her to drive.

Finally. I'll share with you a few resources that I found early on that helped to educate me on Alzheimer's and dementia, as well as taught me how to become an effective caregiver.

Some of the topics that are covered are

· You don’t know, What You don’t know…
· The what and why of Denial and how to deal with it
· Our experience with getting my loved one to stop driving when it was no long safe
· Resources that were helpful early on
o www.alz.org – The Alzheimer’s Association
o www.TeepaSnow.com - Teepa Snow – A positive approach to care
o www.CareBlazers.com - Dr. Natale Edmunds careblazer program and facebook group

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We're going to return to our backstory...

Episode two talked about the time before dementia really had an effect on our family and our relationship.

Today, we'll take a closer look when my wife Shanna was in the early stage of Alzheimer's and that time leading up until her eventual diagnosis a few years later.

I will share how we dealt with some of the typical and not so typical experiences when Alzheimer's starts to take effect and creates the first of many “new normal” stages of life for you and what you'll experience, how you adjust to those stages and eventually move beyond them to the next stage.

If this is where you are in your journey. I hope there will be some things that will help you to adjust to how things are in your new world. If you have moved beyond this early stage. Hearing of our experience may stir up some difficult memories for you. Regardless of where you are. I hope that you can gain a clearer perspective from our experience as you relate them to your own.

So. Mild stage Alzheimer's. What is so mild about it?

For me, this was a very hard period of caregiving. I think mostly because at this point we did notknow what we were dealing with. It was one of the most jarring periods, everything was so new and I had absolutely zero experience in dealing with this. …..

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In this episode, I discuss the year leading up to my wife's eventual diagnosis of Alzheimer's. I'll share what we learned and how we arrived at that diagnosis in working with the doctors. I will also share how after receiving the diagnosis, how we as a couple and as a family dealt with that diagnosis.

Continuing with our backstory… About the year 2016 was when we entered into moderate Alzheimer's stage and still didn't know it, because we had not yet arrived at a diagnosis.

After firing our first neurologist, we started working with a new one. He began an extensive set of tests. I will discuss what that was like for Shanna. In the middle of all this we had some life-changing events that added significant stress to the both of us.

After all of the testing was done we finally received our diagnosis. I will tell how it felt and what it was like to receive that diagnosis and then have to share it with our family and friends.

I'll also point out what I feel are some key things that we decided back then that have really helped us in the years following the diagnosis.

Finally, I'll share a couple of significant lessons learned during that part of our journey that may be helpful to you.

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In today's episode I will talk about some difficult topics. That of grief, guilt and ambiguous loss. Now it's not my goal to depress you any further, as I'm sure you've experienced each of these emotions and feelings while you've been on your caregiving journey.

It is my intention that as I reflect upon my experiences and share them with a little bit of perspective we can see how as caregivers we can experience these often difficult emotions but not allow them to hold us hostage.

At this point in my journey I've learned that grief can actually be a healthy emotion, as it can help you process your losses. On the other hand, I have found that I have absolutely no use for guilt most of the time.

Most likely I could spend a complete episode on each one of these emotions. For now in today's episode I will just touch upon each one of them and how we might be able to deal with them in a healthy way.

I will touch upon how grief has taught me and continues to teach meto appreciate what we've had and to treasure what remains.

I will also share how I battled and conquered Guilt especially when I chose to move my wife to a memory care facility.

Finally, I will discuss one of the most unique dementia caregiving experiences, the one of ambiguous loss.

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In today's episode we'll be continuing our backstory and talking about moderate stage Alzheimer's when we were both living at home and I became Shanna’s full-time caregiver. This lasted somewhere between three and four years.

It was a time that was filled with many changes and adjustments. This was the time where my caregiver education and experience became full-time and I learned many lessons along the way. A few years into this time period I started my “Our Alzheimer’s Journey” journal. This is the opening line of the journal:

“ This journal should have been started a few years ago, but I decided to start it now because I want to capture the feelings, experiences, and memories from here on out in great detail. “

Topics covered in this episode :

• Sharing of a listener’s review - Thanks Susan !
• Overview of that time period including Covid 19 pandemic
• Detailed discussion of typical signs of Moderate Stage Alzheimer’s and what we experienced
• How I dealt with the growing caregiver stress with some recommendations
• Share learnings from that time as well as new learnings as I reflect back
• How working with a Faith Based Life Coach helped me to Survive Alzheimer's and led me to become a certified coach.
• The most important lesson I learned about my thoughts that has changed my life for the better

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EP 8 - Are you ready to Quarterback your team ?

As this year's football season has begun I would like to use the role of a football quarterback as an analogy of how we as a primary caregiver are at the center of all aspects of our loved ones lives . If you are not the primary decision maker and play more of a supportive role then consider yourself to be an off lineman protecting your quarterback.

Listener Comment shoutout to Christine.

Topics covered in this episode :

I will give an overview of the many aspects of the role of Quarterbacking your caregiving team.

I will tell of my experience assembling "Team Shanna" the team consists of

• medical professionals
• financial and legal advisors
• along with emotional and spiritual coaches.
• Also included on the team are dear friends who have supported us along our journey
• last but surely not least: both the in home and Memory Care caregivers and staff

It has taken years to assemble the team but sometimes you have to scramble as things can quickly change as I will illustrate in a story about a dear friend and his wife.

Summary:

• Having you team in place with you as the Quarterback will give you peace of mind knowing you are ready to deal with the changes and challenges of caring for your loved one
• “Never let Fear of the Future rob you of the Joy that you can experience Today”

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