Well, today is “home permanent” day in our house.  My mom has been getting home perms in her hair every three months since I was tall enough to stand behind her.  It is a routine that I have come to love over the last couple of years.  We have our primary physician appointment in the morning to discuss mom’s high blood pressure. we’ve been taking it twice a day for two weeks so the Dr. can see that it’s not just high in her office, but also every morning and evening.  We are also asking for a referral to a neurologist for the all-important brain scan to finally have an official diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease or not and to what extent.

I read an article back when I first started reading on the alheimer’sreadingroom.com titled:  Alzheimer’s Care: the Importance of the Early Morning Wake Up Routine.  So I have been trying my best to do this.  Mornings she fixes her own breakfast usually oatmeal or her beloved blueberry Poptarts (with NO icing).  You don’t even want to know how hard it is to find this particular kind. These days they’re almost as hard as finding home permanents! Then its morning medicine and blood pressure check after that she goes into her sewing room and rearranges the material for those darn kitchen curtain and chair cushions (but she has yet to still attempt to sew anything).  We clean up the house, figure out what we want

These days they’re almost as hard as finding home permanents! Then its morning medicine and blood pressure check after that she goes into her sewing room and rearranges the material for those darn kitchen curtain and chair cushions (but she has yet to still attempt to sew anything).  We clean up the house, figure out what we want for dinner and last but not least on our morning routine is to watch her beloved Dr. Phil (but she also LOVES Maury, although she won’t admit this to anybody)

By the time we have accomplished all of this it is lunch time this part has been kind of difficult because after lunch we are supposed to take our first walk.  Thanks to the ‘arctic blast’ we won’t get to do this today.  So I scramble to fill the afternoon in other ways when our walk doesn’t get to happen.  We have been going to Lowe’s to pick out paint samples to paint the laundry room. We are planning our trip to Florida to visit my oldest brother, this never fails to excite her.  We are staying our first night in Savannah, GA. We are also planning a trip to New York City in October and we are ALL excited about that.  So I have been filling these afternoons with internet searches on fun things to do on vacation.  Then my husband comes home from work and we head to Lake Bowen to walk a few laps around the lake.  Then

We are planning our trip to Florida to visit my oldest brother, this never fails to excite her.  We are staying our first night in Savannah, GA. We are also planning a trip to New York City in October and we are ALL excited about that.  So I have been filling these afternoons with internet searches on fun things to do on vacation.  Then my husband comes home from work and we head to Lake Bowen to walk a few laps around the lake.  Then its dinner, dessert (God forgive you if there is no dessert) the news and then we all head to our bedrooms for the evening.  Mom to do her favorite word finds, my husband to ESPN, and me to my Alzheimer’s or arthritis research.

I wondered if this routine was making a difference and this morning I found out it really does help.  I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately and am averaging about 5 hours every two days.  Last night I was exhausted so I decided to try a Unisom.  Boy did it work, I fell asleep around 11 last night and didn’t wake up again until 8:30 this morning, but it sure felt good.

So this morning I came out of my room and did what I always do fixed me some tea, made my bed and took my meds.  It was 9 by the time I was ready for blood pressure time.  I said mom let’s take your blood pressure and she looked at me and said you’re late that’s at 8:30 and I already took it.

I looked at the paper and sure enough at exactly 8:44 am(not 8:45) she had taken her blood pressure on both sides and had written it down on a piece of paper.  I was amazed! This routine stuff really works!  She could remember to take her own blood pressure because we had done this every day for the last two and half weeks. Too bad she couldn’t remember she had already had two bowls of banana pudding before she ate her third last night for dessert.