Preparedness for when

VJsmum

NewShadow wrote: »

Two passports can also be handy if you want to go somewhere like hong kong - you have to send your passport to the embassy and visas can take 5 weeks!

Just in case anyone's worried, you don't need a visa for Hong Kong, but I take your general point.

I will read all I can before deciding how to vote, anything that is supported by Farage, Duncan Smith, Johnson et al has me worried, but then dodgy Dave wants to go the other way.... Johnson is a very dangerous man done up like a buffoon.

Thanks for the contributions, I love this thread.

moneyistooshorttomention

On a very different SHTF scenario - and I've just been reminded of one that hits quite a few people (directly or indirectly) by reading an email from a friend about her mother this morning.

Friends mother has dementia and its obviously progressing at quite a fast rate. I don't think its a problem to mother herself - but its certainly a problem to my poor friend (who is having to bear the brunt of this). The main problem seems to be that mother has always refused to admit she has dementia and is still refusing to admit it - though its blindingly obvious and the medics have finally accepted that's what is going on.

Salutary reminder that many people are self-deluding. I think I'm very honest with myself and think I would admit it to myself if I ever got it (fingers crossed very hard I won't obviously).

When you get to my age though and watch how many of the elderly generation have got it - a momentary bit of absent-mindedness gets you wondering "Is this a normal level of absent-mindedness or is it......@shades of the music from Jaws? (ohgawd the start of it)".

I would want to know if it happened to me personally/admit it/deal with it.

I know the medics run tests on people they suspect of having it (all those quizzes about various common knowledge type things). Is there a self-test online somewhere that people can decide to do themselves at intervals - to check for themselves that their mind is still working properly? I think it would be useful for people to decide of themselves to do such a test once or twice a year in order to keep a check on their minds and see if they're still working normally or have started to "slide".

Does anyone know of a suitable link for a self-test? It would be really reassuring to think "Don't worry - so-and-so is just standard level absentmindedness. No need for action".

NB; I have an idea there is a film about this - of a woman who put some sort of check into her computer for her computer to run on her and, if she couldn't complete it, then she'd know she had a problem. That's a thought as well..(don't know how the film finished....).

greenbee

Many people don't realise they have dementia, which is a huge blessing in many ways as it saves them so much suffering.

The film you are referring to is 'Still Alice' which I would thoroughly recommend.

fuddle

Dementua is cruel. There's no one symptom hits all. Some hallucinate, some hear things, some forget to lock the door, some forget how to make a cup of tea. Its a process of deterioration that starts with short term memory and work backwards. Think of your mimd as a book shelf. Without dementia the shelf is full of all our experiences. With dementia those books start to fall off the shelf. There's no way of guessing which books and when. Its dreadful for the people that love the dementia sufferer but as it progresses the sufferer doesnt really know it, jist deal with the frustration of memory loss. its deeper than that but I have a school run to do so generalisation has to suffice in this post

moneyistooshorttomention

I know the thing that strikes me most - from what my friend says about her mother - is that I am watching that short-term memory problem being played out there. Her mothers memory is reeling back and back and knocking out the newest stuff. Another friend said the same thing happened to her mother. With my own parents - I've always thought "The family heart problem gets most of us" and expected that would be what it was (at a fairly young age) for first my parents and then myself and congratulated myself there is no dementia in my family. But then an aunt lived on for quite some time - and she got it. My parents have both lived on longer than any of us (them included) expected and I keep catching them being supremely absent-minded and I wonder/and worry. So I no longer think "Our genes are fine on that point. We don't get it in my family". I can see that we've only not experienced it in my family before because the heart stuff meant few of us lived long enough to get to that age.

Hence flash of panic if I put something down and cant remember where I put it - and up comes that Jaws music and I think "This had better not mean.....nope it must be just a flash of the daydreamer/mind on other things that's always been there"...

Re hallucinations - I've not heard of anyone I am aware of with dementia having that. Though I guess that could be a symptom some people get. That's got me wondering what sort of hallucinations anyone that got that aspect would have? Would they be the sort of hallucinations that just boiled down to seeing stuff that really WAS there (but other people couldn't see it) - eg my mother said she saw a member of the family one time after they died (and I believe her) OR genuine hallucinations iyswim?

mardatha

Meanmarie when I hit Connemara the high rents won't bother me, cos I goin to win the lottery before I go

Karmacat

I went to read the indy100 article about stuff you need at the end of the world, and there was a link to this article: http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/amazon-has-a-contingency-plan-in-case-of-a-zombie-apocalypse--Zyx7rbspCTx

Does Amazon have a sense of humour? Or did an employee sneak one in under the wire?

I don't care, really, I think its brilliant :j:D:rotfl:

fuddle

It's about difficulty processing information really MITSTM. Problems around perception can induce seeing things that aren't there because of the difficulty processing what really is there mixed with feelings at the time. As an example a lady who was pleased to see me told me I had a halo atop of my head or once went to take a cloth from me as a cup of tea... I guess because she could do with a cup of tea. She would often question if I had brought a friend because she could see two of me. I think it's important to remember that dementia is an umbrella term and that there are many illnesses that effect information processing and memory, each of them with different symptoms leading to further complications like sight and hearing loss, anxiety or depression or malnutrition. Each bring their own toll on the body and need a myriad of medications. Some one with dementia would probably have a whole host of other medical issues but the label would probablt be dementia to you or I.

I don't know if you go in for holistic approaches MITSTM but one word for you if you fancy? tumeric

RAS

Re dementia it is important to understand that there are different kinds; people with alzheimers will find something to eat even if they fail to remember that they have eaten an hour later; people with Lewy body can tell you exactly what their dietary requirements are and fail to eat for days and vascular dementia is different again.

Cross posted with fuddle.

ivyleaf

mitstm I wouldn't worry about putting something down and not being able to remember where you put it - that's something we all do as we get older Like the thing where you go into a room and can't remember what you were planning to do, and have to retrace your steps, then it usually comes back to you

Bill Bryson describes going into town and ringing his wife to ask why he's there :

"Dear, I'm in town. Why am I here?"
"You've gone to get a haircut."
"Thank you."