Hello! Welcome to Battling Alzheimer

I consider it a great honor to be writing for the HART-Empire Network, but the fact that I get to write about Alzheimer’s disease is just icing on the cake. This blog is my way of giving purpose to the seven years I had the honor (although it didn’t always feel like an honor) of serving as my mother’s primary caregiver.

In this first post, I’ll talk a little about myself, and much more about the Battling Alzheimer blog and where I see it going. So, let’s take a look at the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where and why, and I’ll throw in HOW as well) as we look at the future of the Battling Alzheimer blog.

Who

I am Loretta Parker Spivey, I use Parker, primarily to honor my parents, both of whom are deceased. I am excited and looking forward to being a part of this great network of writers. Although I might be qualified to write about a few of the topics, I am absolutely honored to be able to write about Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s an important, life changing disease that has implications for the entire family, not just the person who has the disease or the primary caregiver.

What

My goal for the Battling Alzheimer Blog is to pick up where Michael Davidsen left off and continue to provide you with a pertinent site that will help as you face this disease. I am looking forward to providing you with meaningful, relevant, insightful information that will respond to the issues that you face daily. Ultimately, I want this blog to be the “go to” place on the internet for Alzheimer’s Disease information. I want you to check in frequently for your daily dose of information and inspiration. Yes, I’m the writer, but my goal is for you to have major input as we battle Alzheimer’s Disease. I welcome your questions, email, topic suggestions and comments.

When

You’ll hear from me at least 5 days each week. From time to time on the weekends, I’ll give you some interesting and inspirational quotes and some resource lists.

Where

You’ve already found me. I’ll be right here Battling For Health on the HART-Empire Network. You are welcome to comment here in the blog on any post, or send me a private message directly by using our CONTACT form. I will receive instant notification by email with both respects.

Why

Because we have to win this battle and together we can! A very wise man once said that two are better than one, but a cord of three is not easily broken. So, between you, this amazing network, and me we will be a strong cord of three. So, as you fight this battle you will be supported and strengthened and not broken.

How

By giving you a place in my family room. I encourage you to pull up a seat, there’s an overstuffed chair just for you. We are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day; here to listen to your struggles, share your successes, and take your suggestions. I’ll do my best to provide you with interesting reliable information that will help enable you to fight this battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. Please check out our Subscribe Page - you can subscribe to our RSS feed and be able to read all of our posts in your Feed Reader of choice, or even sign up for a daily email summary recap of this blog’s post sent directly to your email’s IN-Box. You are welcome to browse our Archives and Tag Cloud in our sidebar, and I do hope to see you come here in the comments of our blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Loretta

               

Farewell to Blogger Michael Davidsen

I would like to publicly thank Michael Davidsen for his work here blogging at Battling Alzheimer in 2008. It was quite informative and entertaining reading stories from .. “the perspective of a forgetful caregiver who has perhaps looked more deeply into a patient’s eyes than some others have” … being that of his grandmother’s eyes.

Unfortunately, for personal reasons .. Michael had asked to resign from this position as a full-time blogger and I have accepted. I will not be going to explain his reasons and leave it up to Michael.

In early November 2007, my own father-in-law was in a car accident and suffered brain damage as a result. Although there is some long-term memories, there is no short term memory. Every day is a new day waking up in a strange new environment wondering, well .. many things. According to my wife, as sad is it was for her father was to have a ‘brain bleed’ and the loss of memory and other cognitive functions … her father probably would have preferred it this way - if he was aware or able to remember. He was 73 and still self-employed as an antique clock repairman and kept his mind quite active. Just recently, he renewed the lease on his business for another 3 years and if this accident had not happened, when that term is up he would probably be renewing his lease for another term and continue to work like the energizer bunny!

I enjoyed reading Michael’s posts here at Battling Alzheimer .. and will be able to take a lot out of it personally. From Alzheimer’s disease .. to the brain damaged person .. my father-in-law’s situation is not much different. His memory is gone .. but he is still an individual.

A few great posts by Michael are:

* Putting People With Alzheimer’s To Work - One Grandma At A Time
* Can Your Loved One Trust You?

Feel free to browse our Archives and see all of Michael’s posts for January 2008 and February 2008.

What’s Next For The Battling Alzheimer Blog?

As Michael mentioned on his last post ..

“I will be moving out too, someday to go where my grandmother has gone (perhaps). Someday I may be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps sooner than I think. Next week, someone else will be taking over as the writer of this blog, just as someone has taken over care of my grandmother’s house. In the end, it’s foolish to hold onto the pain. Let’s just hold onto the joys.

And we will be moving on. Starting this week - a new writer will be taking over this blog, and I wish her all the success. I invite this new blogger to just start and introduce herself to all our Battling For Health readers and hopefully, tell us a little more about herself!

In the meantime …

Take care everybody!
HART (1-800-HART)
BattlingForHealth.com
HART-Empire-Network.com

               

Welcome to the NEW AND IMPROVED Battling Alzheimer Site!

We Have A New Template!

Welcome to the Battling Alzheimer blog. I have finally updated this blog with the new HART-Empire Network template that I have been installing on all the “Battling For Health” series of sites.

Please feel free to look around and give this template a good test spin, with your comments and rating of existing posts. I have updated a few plugins and have included a super caching plugin that should help speed up the viewing of existing posts and images.

At this time .. I am also excited to announce that a new author will be taking over this blog in 2008 .. and well, I’ll let that writer settle in and provide you with all the necessary introductions and new direction of for this blog .. for those “Battling The Monster: Alzheimer’s Disease”

Until then .. Season’s Greetings from HART-Empire Network and all the best for 2008!

Take care.
HART