Thanksgiving Week
The week is upon us and the Kenistons have SO much to be grateful for.
I had pretty much resigned myself years ago that I would have to buy a house in Houston to be able to spend more time with my grands. I also accepted that I would only have two grandchildren. After all, I only had two children. Most of my friends only had one or two. But this has been a great year for my family. As anyone who follows this blog knows, not only is my daughter's family back in town, tomorrow they will be signing the final papers on a house around the corner from us. I'm beyond thrilled. And to make Thanksgiving even more special, my whole family will be here. My two cousins and their clan, even my niece and her husband and his mother visiting from Spain. There will be seventeen adults and six children at our table(s) this Thursday--a little like the Farradays and Sweets I think!
Then, this week, we took my mother to her neurologist for her six month check up. This time, though, mom is off all her meds, both memory and blood pressure. My uncle has stabilized her BP to below 120 with daily doses of organic Beet root powder. Who knew controlling BP could be that easy. But she went from being on two meds for BP to none. Crazy. Same with her mind. No more sugar, no more wheat, which means, no pizza, no crackers, no bread, no cola, cakes etc. After six months, mom is way more aware and alert - the other day she walked into the room, stopped, my uncle said what is it, and she responded, I forgot what I was going to say - holy moly, for her to realize she's forgotten something is huge. Now that comes and goes. Some days she remembers a smidge longer, and some days not so much. She most definitely still has dementia, but she's more herself now than the woman who would stare off into space with nothing in her eyes. So. At the doctors. We told her -- no meds of any kind. So often that at one point I wanted to say to the PA, what part of NONE are you missing? But, I was night and just kept repeating, no none, every time she asked if mom was taking one med or another. Then her doctor came in and did the regular tests they do to see if she's digressing. Well, her score was exactly the same this year as last year, yay! We fought awfully hard for years to keep her from digressing, but this time when they asked mom to remember three words, and asked her those words several minutes later, though she had no clue what they were --- which has been standard for years now, when the doctor gave her hints, she remembered two of the three. Now, that has not been the case for years. For years, even with prompting, she'd draw a blank. So this shows that what we're saying is spot on. She still has dementia, but some days she remembers things a little longer than others so she can participate in life without annoying people with the immediate repetition of the same question. Like I said, we have much to be thankful for! Oh, and did I mention, Mom turned 90 this year!
Tomorrow is release day for Sweet Tomorrows - that's the book my editor loved so much, I barely had any revisions to make, and usually, I have a lot! LOL. Then Sweet Redemption is out with the review team waiting for proofreads, and that one will probably release about two weeks early on my webstore if you don't want to wait till after Christmas!
Lastly on the book front, I'm working on Sweet Rescue. This is a shift in the Honeysuckle series. We're still at the Sweet ranch, and we still have the whole family, and the town, but now instead of an Happy ever after for the siblings, now we're going to work with the military K9 rescues that Alice fosters. I hope y'all love it as much as the sibling's books. I'm so fond of dogs and especially German Shepherds who are crazy smart. We had a GSD named Rabb, a big guy, over 100 pounds and he wasn't fat, but he was so smart, the trainer thought he had to have a German blood line. Then after Rabb, we got Gunny. He was a sweet dog. And smart for a regular dog, but pretty dumb for a German Shepherd Dog. LOL. Of course, we won't have any dumb dogs in Honeysuckle!
All right. that's it for me!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I had pretty much resigned myself years ago that I would have to buy a house in Houston to be able to spend more time with my grands. I also accepted that I would only have two grandchildren. After all, I only had two children. Most of my friends only had one or two. But this has been a great year for my family. As anyone who follows this blog knows, not only is my daughter's family back in town, tomorrow they will be signing the final papers on a house around the corner from us. I'm beyond thrilled. And to make Thanksgiving even more special, my whole family will be here. My two cousins and their clan, even my niece and her husband and his mother visiting from Spain. There will be seventeen adults and six children at our table(s) this Thursday--a little like the Farradays and Sweets I think!
Then, this week, we took my mother to her neurologist for her six month check up. This time, though, mom is off all her meds, both memory and blood pressure. My uncle has stabilized her BP to below 120 with daily doses of organic Beet root powder. Who knew controlling BP could be that easy. But she went from being on two meds for BP to none. Crazy. Same with her mind. No more sugar, no more wheat, which means, no pizza, no crackers, no bread, no cola, cakes etc. After six months, mom is way more aware and alert - the other day she walked into the room, stopped, my uncle said what is it, and she responded, I forgot what I was going to say - holy moly, for her to realize she's forgotten something is huge. Now that comes and goes. Some days she remembers a smidge longer, and some days not so much. She most definitely still has dementia, but she's more herself now than the woman who would stare off into space with nothing in her eyes. So. At the doctors. We told her -- no meds of any kind. So often that at one point I wanted to say to the PA, what part of NONE are you missing? But, I was night and just kept repeating, no none, every time she asked if mom was taking one med or another. Then her doctor came in and did the regular tests they do to see if she's digressing. Well, her score was exactly the same this year as last year, yay! We fought awfully hard for years to keep her from digressing, but this time when they asked mom to remember three words, and asked her those words several minutes later, though she had no clue what they were --- which has been standard for years now, when the doctor gave her hints, she remembered two of the three. Now, that has not been the case for years. For years, even with prompting, she'd draw a blank. So this shows that what we're saying is spot on. She still has dementia, but some days she remembers things a little longer than others so she can participate in life without annoying people with the immediate repetition of the same question. Like I said, we have much to be thankful for! Oh, and did I mention, Mom turned 90 this year!
Tomorrow is release day for Sweet Tomorrows - that's the book my editor loved so much, I barely had any revisions to make, and usually, I have a lot! LOL. Then Sweet Redemption is out with the review team waiting for proofreads, and that one will probably release about two weeks early on my webstore if you don't want to wait till after Christmas!
Lastly on the book front, I'm working on Sweet Rescue. This is a shift in the Honeysuckle series. We're still at the Sweet ranch, and we still have the whole family, and the town, but now instead of an Happy ever after for the siblings, now we're going to work with the military K9 rescues that Alice fosters. I hope y'all love it as much as the sibling's books. I'm so fond of dogs and especially German Shepherds who are crazy smart. We had a GSD named Rabb, a big guy, over 100 pounds and he wasn't fat, but he was so smart, the trainer thought he had to have a German blood line. Then after Rabb, we got Gunny. He was a sweet dog. And smart for a regular dog, but pretty dumb for a German Shepherd Dog. LOL. Of course, we won't have any dumb dogs in Honeysuckle!
All right. that's it for me!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
No comments have been added yet.
