Things the Movies Have Taught Us (LOL)

[Since1982]

I know what Prkinson's does...My maternal grandmother died from it and I had deathwatch at the age of 9 and it's something I'll never forget.


Given a choice between Parkinson's and Alzheimer's I'll take my Ruger .50 mag stainless super handgun and stick it somewhere I won't feel a thing. At least with Heart disease your mind stays mostly clear til the end, unless you have a stroke. I'm real careful about what I eat, exercise daily, don't do any drugs that aren't prescribed and do no alcoholic beverages except my single B-Day and X-Mas St Pauli Girl, bottled imported beer. And it was gooooood.

[Since1982]

I don't believe anyone dies peacefully in their sleep, as some people phrase it.

All depends on WHERE they die. A lucky few die at home in their sleep, most of who go to a hospital or worse, a nursing home, usually have lots and lots of pain before they go. I think my mom's hospital doctor could tell me when she was going to die because he'd had it to the ceiling with her screaming for me whenever she was awake and he was going to kill her. Doctors get away with "murder" all the time. It's just one needle with the wrong stuff in it and "He passed away in his sleep, my dear, luckier than most here ma'am..." It happened in my family and I can't really know if Mom was gonna get over the Alzheimers or just get worse. Probably the latter...What I was living for was her infrequent times of perfectly clear mentality. They did happen and when she was clear, she'd ask me why she was in the hospital, she didn't remember all the weeks and months of screaming other than to tell me her throat hurt. I guess we never really get over seeing our parents like that. It's 11 years now and I can still see the look in her eyes as she asked me where we were, "at the hospital"...I told her and she responded with "How is Silk?" a pet Collie dog that had died 30 years before. I suppose whatever the doctor did was a blessing, even though it was certainly illegal.

[Kirbstone]

Skip, I'm delighted to learn that you have a legacy from your musical Mom. I know and like that song, 'The garden of Eden'.
It's a toss-up which illness is the more devastating, Parkinsons or Alzheimers, but they are very different in their effect on immediate family. A bit like most cancers, Parkinsons affects the body, leaving the patient painfully aware of what's happening to them, whereas with Alzheimers the sufferer is quite early on away with the fairies and it's left to the family or carers to cope with the effects of the disease. My mother's advancing condition split our family apart regarding decisions about her care &c, also the supposed 'causes' of it, but that's well in the past now, and Time is a great healer.

[Since1982]

That's not really true about Alzheimers. That once they get it, that's it and it just gets worse. My mom, had many many periods of perfect clarity of mind and voice. She was so aware that she had Alz she'd tell me to wait while she thought of all the things she wanted to tell me before the alz took her back over. A period of clarity happened the day she passed on. She wanted to hug and kiss me. We did, later a hospital orderly told the administration I was "kissing my mother in a suggestive sexy way" Of course that was all BS. My mom and I always kissed the old fashioned way. hug and single touch smooch type kiss. We never believed in the modern style of "French kissing". I had to go to court after she passed tho...a terrible experience. I was cleared of course. The orderly wasn't even chastized.

Which rendition of Garden of Eden do you listen to? Who is the singer, or is it Atwell's piano version? Did you call a store and ask who the author was? You can Wiki it. Under The Garden of Eden.

[DALederle]

Skip!
Let me get this straight!
The day your mother died, an orderely saw you kissing her good bye and wanted to charge you with incestous...intentions, toward you dying mother????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
My God! That's really sick of them.
But they took him/her serious?
That's sick enough, but on the day your mother died.
Did you bring a lawsuit against all of them?
I would have.
Or maybe go after the person on my own. Sorry but that does come to mind with something like this.

Dennis A. Lederle