Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2005. Mattie was almost three years old and that day we took him to Butler's Orchard in Maryland, to attend their Bunnyland spring fair. As you can see, Mattie was having a ball. There were all sorts of hands on activities for kids, as well as an Easter Egg hunt. Mattie gravitated to the John Deere tractor, which was why Peter created Mattie a step stool for the bathroom that looked just like the tractor.
Quote of the day: No matter how bleak or menacing a situation may appear, it does not entirely own us. It can't take away our freedom to respond, our power to take action. ~ Ryder Carroll
As you can imagine I am very cognizant about brain health and dementia. When I brought my dad in for a dental cleaning three months ago, they found that he has significant gum disease. This was surprising to me given the fact that he cared for his teeth all his life, went for cleanings every six months, and had good oral hygiene. Or at least he did before 2020. When the hygienist handed him a tooth brush and asked him to demonstrate how he brushes his teeth, it became very apparent to me and her..... that my dad no longer knows how to brush his teeth. So she has asked me to take this over. I confess, I get an F in that department, because I am doing everything else for him. But today I visited the dentist, and I am now making a commitment to take over his dental care.
The point to all of this is back at the dental visit with my dad, I learned of a salvia test to detect bacteria in your mouth that has been linked to many kinds of diseases, one being Alzheimer's. I think if my parents did not have dementia, I probably would NOT be focused on this testing, but since they do, I feel I want to be as proactive as possible. After all if there is a pathogen in my mouth, that could be treated to help with the prevention of systemic disease, then I feel it is important for me to learn more and be proactive.
Check out this interesting one minute video:
Evidence seems to show that five high-risk oral pathogens are causative drivers of inflammation and disease. Oral bacteria make their way into your bloodstream and place us at risk for heart attacks, stroke, Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes. Saliva pathogen testing determines the cause and severity of an infection, provides a medical diagnosis, validates treatment, and identifies early stages of infection.
The testing was super simple and I should have results in two weeks. Again, I am not saying this is the be all or end all, but it provides me with more data about my own potential situation.
It is ironic that a trip to the dentist or the doctor's office is like a SPA day for me. I dropped my dad off at the memory care center, and I asked my mom to stay home. Though she wanted to come with me (as she has a FEAR OF MISSING OUT syndrome), it is just too stressful herding her out of the house in the morning. So after I dropped my dad off, I had time by myself in the car, which felt like incredible freedom. I had freedom for three hours where I did not have to worry about either parent. My hygienist understands what I am balancing and she too calls it my 'spa' appointment.
Of course as soon as I got back home after my appointment, I had laundry, dishes, emails, the animals to care for, managing my mom, and caring for my dad. My mom got a bill in the mail today, and this sent her over the edge. She had me going crazy for 90 minutes over this bill, and I had to call the health insurer and figure out the discrepancies. While talking to the health insurer, my mom was hovering over me. I finally lost it and told her to sit down. I have no idea what the health insurer thought about my comment to my mom, but frankly I just didn't care at that point in time. Any case, after solving the bill saga, I felt like I went three rounds and LOST!
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