Dementia

This is a photo taken of Mom and Dad when we went to WY in September 2007. It is the last time I remember Dad having all his mental capacities in tact. A few months after this trip we found out he had bladder cancer, then the liver cancer diagnosis, and from there on out it got progressively worse.

Today his doctor called me, very concerned, telling me something has to be done. It is dangerous for Mom and Dad to live alone without someone in charge of their medications. He wants to send a visiting nurse three days a week, who will be sure they are taking the right meds at the right times. But I have to talk to them first because twice before he sent nurses and Mom and Dad sent them away. The doctor also said he is starting Dad on the Alzheimer's medicine today.

Dad is used to being the smartest person in any room at any time. For the past 35 years he has been working on a theory that disputes Einstein's theory of relativity. I know this is harder for him than it is us. But of all the bad things going on in his life, this is the one that makes me the angriest.

I love you, Dad, and I'm sorry it has to be this way.