THE RABBIT HOLE DIARIES

Do you have a loved one sliding into the rabbit hole of dementia?

Welcome.

This is a place to share.

 Forgive me for letting this blog slip for the past few weeks. I've been busy focusing on family matters, and completing a manuscript for a book about people dealing with a loved one who suffers from dementia. (The trailer is viewable in the post below.) The new blog and the book are very personal. This is now my mother's world.

We didn't recognize the early signs. Our ailing father had recently passed away. He was our mother's world, and his care had occupied her every hour, so we assumed the depression, the bouts of anxiety, the confusion, and the uncharacteristic emotional swings from silly to sobbing was a result of the dramatic changes she had experienced.

Mom had been estranged from her family most of her life with only a few visits home in forty years. She returned from her last visit to see her mother with reports of the changes she had seen in this once lively parent. We all assumed it was the result of a tragedy her mother had experienced. Now we know better.

I was doing genealogy and I contacted a relative to ask for information. She sent a family tree home with my mother on that visit. I never saw it, but my sister found it a few years ago. It listed my mother's thirteen aunts and uncles--nine of whom suffered from some form of dementia. In all honesty, the news scared us. We could see what we were dealing with, that it wasn't going to get better, and that we were utterly unprepared.

I've begun a new blog titles, "The Rabbit Hole Diaries,"  that's attached to my website. I hope this blog will attract others who are dealing with dementia in a loved one. I'll share what we're learning from doctors and research, I'll post links and articles, ideas on respite and long term care, but what I've found most helpful so far is sharing with others staring into that rabbit hole.

So if you have something to share, please do. If you have questions or need a place to vent and cry, click the link, visit the blog, and share. I hope we'll build a community of support, and a network that can empower us to give our loved ones the best life possible.

Thanks,

Laurie (L.C.) Lewis