Chronology of Blog and Husband's Dementia

Here are a few dates not covered in this blog:

Having been a widow for eight years I marry DH on 4/17/2000. We had met on a Christian dating site and I moved from Miami to the Plant City area to marry him. Hubby has two adult children and eventually five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. I marry "for better, for worse, in sickness and in health until death us do part".

I begin teaching a class for DUI offenders part-time in 2003 while I continue teaching English/Reading in public schools. 

DH has a heart attack and heart surgery in the early fall of 2004 during a string of three hurricanes in our area. It is then that he also becomes a type two diabetic, first on insulin and now on pills. Those two factors contribute to Vascular Dementia. He also has surgery to correct his carotid arteries some time later.  

In 2006 on a prayer list with ladies at my church I request prayer for my husband's memory. In the Fall of 2006 we begin taking seminary counseling classes at our church, Christ Presbyterian, in Lakeland, Florida. Very soon hubby decides to only audit the classes, but I will continue taking them and begin writing papers on subjects such as dying well, praying well, anger of an Alzheimer’s husband, authority of an Alzheimer’s husband. Perhaps this will lead to an Ed.D. in counseling, but initially I just liked the classes, never knowing I would go this far towards a degree.

June 2007 I retire from stressful public school teaching. I continue to notice signs my husband may have dementia. He keeps working and within the year I begin to substitute teach. Even though I retired from full-time teaching, I periodically teach that class for first time DUI offenders.

Here are a few dates since December 2008 
covered during the blog:

  • Hubby is officially diagnosed with dementia in December of 2008, even though I have suspected earlier that there are memory problems. I announce this here on my first blog post of 12/31/08. Hubby never found out about this blog.
  • My cousin Linda wrote once in February of 2009 and my husband got shingles that month. Basically hubby shows little signs of stress other than that shingles. He does swear at times when he is frustrated, but I have learned to cope with that behavior that happened when he started losing neurons due to dementia.
  • We put in new energy efficient windows and have the house painted in the spring of 2009. I long to refurbish our home and get me more organized. A semi-retired person should finally be able to do this, I figure.
  • Hubby finds work confusing and he resigns from work June 2009. I get nine comments on a post including one from a Beth D. who is to marry hubby’s grandson that summer and to give birth to three great grandsons! We do attend the wedding and have a two week trip that includes that wedding. Never again will we be able to travel so much.
  • Hubby helps me edit Getting Off the Niceness Treadmill over that summer of 2009. If something wasn’t clear to him, I changed it. Eventually my first rap comes from chapter nine of that book and I realize I can write and deliver an "old lady" version of my raps at the end of good classes when I substitute teach.
  • I hear about coconut oil and contact Dr. Mary Newport also that summer of 2009. By early fall the results of taking coconut oil look good.
  • Hubby gets small voice recorder and a GPS in 2009 to help him compensate for his dementia. He also often has a daily schedule to work off of, unless I will be home for the day.
  • New Years Day (2010) my Coconut Oil Recipes post is popular! 429 views so far.
  • “Be your wife’s best friend,” hubby told our pastor in the spring of 2010. This was so lovely, but a foreshadowing of the dementia patient’s shadowing of the caregiver.
  • Tampa Date post of August 2010 has 693 views. Soon thereafter my husband is diagnosed with mixed dementia—Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
  • October 2010 “Sally” and I meet when we substituted at the same school. Her husband “Jake” also has beginning Alzheimer’s. They live only a mile and a half away from us in Plant City. Our friendship with Sally and Jake is so important in this journey. The husbands at first do not remember each other, but gradually know each other well.
  • I participate in my first of Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk on November of 2010 and also in 2011 and 2012. Things were too hectic in 2013 as recorded on this blog. I again walk in 2014 after his death. 
  • Crash. December 19, 2010 we are hit by a DUI driver—so ironic because I teach classes for DUI offenders.
  • February 2011 we get Sally and Jake’s used popup camper that we will use for a year and a half—usually camping with Sally and Jake. We also take some Orlando theme park trips with them. I spend each day in 2011 typing up my Scripture highlights for the whole Bible for the whole year. Eleven friends/family get 160 page single-space copies of my highlights of the whole Bible as I listened to the Daily Audio Bible on a podcast. I still go through the Bible every year since 2008 with either reading or listening to the Bible.
  • Fall 2011 my friend Sandy passes away and I speak at her memorial service. On way home from Louisiana, hubby announces he "desires to be a passenger"although he has passed two Alzheimer’s driving tests. He doesn't drive after that and remembers that he is not driving.
  • Becoming convinced I have to stop my emotional eating and be healthy so I can be my husband’s caregiver all his days, I rejoin Weight Watchers in December of 2011 and slowly take off weight. I have been a life time WW member and enjoy the improvements that WW has made over the years. I stop Weight Watchers when caregiving became too much, but resume after my husband's death. 
  • At the beginning of 2012 I formalize seven days of prayer, praying for blogging friends and others. Daily I exchange Scripture with several and after my husband's death I started daily praying for and emailing caregivers I am aware of. Let me know if you want to be included in these daily emails. 
  • Memorial Day weekend 2012 we enjoy our last camping trip.
  • June 2012 respite time. My sister-in-law and I take a week cruise and hubby stays with his son and family that week. The family pays for this--son pays to fly his dad to his home and my sister-in-law for my cruise that I take with her.
  • September 2012 I finally get serious and begin applying ideas from The House That Cleans Itself. The author sends me 15 books that I distribute to those who ask for a copy. A private support group on Facebook is also formed from that distribution. I am mellowed by this effort with Staci Eastin's book The Organized Heart which I also reviewed on this blog. 
  • In the fall of 2012 I go to the hospital twice and hubby stays with his daughter and family both times. Only three hospital stays in my whole life, and two of them in the fall of 2012! (I had my tonsils out when I was five years old.)
  • February 2013 I begin selling Amazon books with a widget.  
  • I get hearing aids with a grant also in February of 2013. Otherwise they would be almost $6000. Thank you, LORD! I write about this as one of my series on senior health. 
  • Our neighbor, Kenny, begins as a volunteer caregiver in the spring of 2013. 
  • Summer of 2013 husband begins to decline. Walking becomes more difficult. 
  • May of 2014 Hospice is called into help with husband and I stop substitute teaching.
  • June 23, 2014 my dear husband passes away peacefully in his sleep. I am going to a bereavement group.
  • This blog will now feature grief, caregiving, caregiving interviews,  selling the house and moving, and finally my dissertation on caregiving.
  • Early in 2015 I decided to sell my home and move to Huntsville, AL (AKA Rocket city), where I have family. The blog will continue with that same blog address, but the heading says "From PLANT CITY to ROCKET CITY". 

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