Old photos and realization dawned

[Guest guest]

Hi, all. To refresh on earlier postings, my mother was diagnosed early in 2006

with Mild Cognitive Impairment...later with Lewy Body Dementia with

Parkinsonism. By 2008, Mom was rapidly heading toward total care and has been

at that point since probably mid-2008. She still has lucid moments when she

will know who I am and, briefly, have complete, understandable sentences. The

time between such moments has grown considerably to the point of them now being

rare.

This morning as I was going through older photographs from 2000-2001, I was

struck by how uninvolved Mom appeared at that time. Mom had undergone surgery

to successfully remove a benign brain tumor in 1996 and we had seen a number of

changes afterward. However, because the changes evolved slowly, we didn't make

any connections, chalking them up to aging. I've always wondered if there is a

connection between the surgery (which, admittedly, saved her life) and the

development of LBD and Parkinsonism features. These older photos pull me back

to that question. I can look at them now with a different eye. What I didn't

notice then seems so obvious to me today.

So, I wonder if I'm insinuating anything into my observations or if this is

something that others might notice when looking back in time. We become such

strong observers while we care for our loved ones that it's sometimes hard to

differentiate between insinuation, or interpretation, and actuality.

Just my thoughts for this day. There's a certain sadness that is lingering

after looking through the older photos...

Best wishes,

Lynn in Florida