Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

It's a good question @badmemory. Both my parents had dementia, but I think it was more to do with isolation caused by a mixture of physical disability and lifestyle - the latter a mixture of choice (village life) and necessity (retiring early to care for a disabled person). My mum was very deaf well in advance of her dementia but stayed very mentally able for a long time.

My husband is also deaf enough to use hearing aids, and it does mean that sometimes it's not easy to communicate, especially if we're tired. I think that's where deafness might contribute to dementia: lack of social input with comorbidities such as tiredness, illness etc.

I can see that opting out - voluntarily or not - could well be a factor in predisposing people to dementia, and I doubt there's a straight link between deafness itself and dementia. Plenty of people with dementia aren't deaf, for a start. Plenty of deaf people don't have dementia. As someone who has always had reduced hearing, I wonder if you perhaps have adaptations to the hearing world that are harder to acquire for someone who looses hearing later in life? My husband doesn't see that it might be useful for him to be able to sign, but even a few signed words/ideas could make a big difference if he looses more hearing.

Cherryfudge

There aren't many plans for today but it's lovely and sunny, though cold. The second lot of laundry is in the washer. My Italian practice is done. The computer was playing silly beggars again this morning but I managed to get in after a restart. I'm still undecided whether to keep mending it or replace, seeing as these things are happening more often.

There are a few things I could usefully be doing:
quiet time
clean out fish tank
plant bulbs
check if any more of my annual leave has been granted
Enter receipts in book
Clear some space on the dining table (which was good the other day thanks to DH but has acquired junk since).

badmemory

I have suspected that because I was so young that I may have accidentally learnt to lip read as it has become more noticable in my later years that if someone isn't facing me or is wearing a face mask I do seem to struggle more.  I also find a noisy environment a form of torture.  But I think you may well be right about going deaf in later years being quite different. But I am sure you are right about tiredness making a hearing problem worse.  From both perspectives.  The talking person tends to mumble more when tired & the hearing loss person being tired has to concentrate harder to "hear".

Cherryfudge

@badmemory, from what I've seen of acquired disabilities (related to my area of work), it's often harder for people who lose their sight to adapt to not seeing, than it is for people who've never seen. I once worked with someone who had always been totally blind but could find his way around rapidly and safely in the house, while there was someone else who lost his sight later who was always scared of moving around. I expect its the same with other disabilities: we get dependent on the senses we use.

I think a lot of people subconsciously lipread a bit, but maybe not enough to have confidence in it, but it sounds as though you've got beyond that stage.

Today's been quietly productive chez fudge. I only went out to put the washing on the line and it dried nicely. Just half an hour in the tumble dryer to make the bedding usable again. I must have used quite a lot of electricity doing the ironing, but there was a backlog. I'm not ironing as many items nowadays but I really don't like wearing crumpled tops.

The fish tank has been thoroughly cleaned and he's back in there looking pleased with it. Work emails aren't letting me in so I've not made progress on anything work-related, which is probably for the best. Other jobs didn't get done. It's been good to have a quiet day and reconnect with myself.

Cherryfudge

Some spending today: after church cleaning (we have two new people on the team so we got through the work quicker than usual) I went to buy a few cereal bars to restock my locker at work. I came out with seven packets of cereal bars, some bruschetta, two boxes of cappuccinos and a bathroom storage unit!

Spending:
Household £18.00
Housekeeping: £11.47

Cherryfudge

Weekend off! What's more, I've now sorted out my login for work emails, timesheet etc. (I thought I had to use a work email, it wasn't that... sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees but I've got past the problem now). My laptop threw me off again today (same problem creating a chain of problems, or just its age?) but I still managed to log in and a team leader has okayed all my leave applications, possibly due to the manager's intervention after my meltdown earlier in the week.

I still have one shift that I'd thought would be problematic, but to my surprise it's not bothering me now that I know I have the other potentially difficult days as leave, plus others around quiet shifts when I'm not needed, plus an extra day on our March holiday which will give us a night in a hotel instead of an early start.

The weather was lovely today: mild and sunny so we had our chips from the chippy (and fish from the freezer ) for lunch then drove out to a woodland walk. Sun shining, drifts of snowdrops, birds singing, fresh air...

On the way home we called at the shop where I got the bathroom storage and ended up with a bathroom tallboy. We've been wanting one for years. DH says he'll put it together on Monday, and we can at last store all the medication, shampoo bottles, packets of sticking plasters and general unsightly clutter behind closed doors instead of in baskets. DH also spotted the best bargain on He1nz beans (£4.99 for 6 at B& M, if you're interested) and I got yet more cappuccinos (£1.69 a pack, same shop). We did a bit more grocery shopping elsewhere too.

So all in all a good day. I've even got to the top of my Duol1ngo league, though that may not last long.

Spending:
Housekeeping £17.78
Household £60.00
Postage ? (returning a jacket to China - late because of postal problems but the issue was logged with them in time so hopefully all in order).

in_need_of_direction

Iceland are doing 3x4 packs of the beans for a tenner

Cherryfudge

in_need_of_direction said:

Iceland are doing 3x4 packs of the beans for a tenner

Thanks! That's a lot better than I've seen elsewhere, I'll tip DH off!

Cherryfudge

Nothing spent again today. It's mild but where has the sun gone? We'd planned on another walk and invited the family but DS2 is away, J and L were already booked and A and H weren't certain, so in the end it didn't happen. Doesn't feel such a good idea when the sky is grey.

I stayed in this morning (church online again) and we had salmon from the freezer for dinner. In the afternoon I really didn't want to do anything but unusually there were two things happening at church. Finally we decided to go to the film they were showing and both of us enjoyed it. We then hung around after for long enough for me to give the remainder of the DBS paperwork to the children's worker, so I should be fully signed up soon. Ironic when I don't know what my work rota will be, and I've realised I'm on five teams now. That's the small (fellowship) group, the children's work, cleaning, hospitality and 'green'. The cleaning team involvement will probably drop to three-weekly instead of two in three now we have more people. I'm not doing any one thing every week and quite often I'm only doing one thing, but I have to be patient and wait to see what my new work rota brings.

This evening I did lots of my Italian and ended up second in the league, so am back in the 'top set' which I fell out of months ago - I don't know why Italian seems to come much more easily, but I'm still doing a bit of French to keep my ear in. Who wouldn't love a language like Italian, though?! So expressive!

I've also had a chat with DH about the things on my mind at present: whether I should carry on with my job, even. I really don't want to go but while the central job is what its always been and I know I have plenty to offer there, the changes are too many and too fast for me.

Cherryfudge

At half past nine this morning I was lounging around in pyjamas when I remembered I was supposed to meet my friend for coffee at ten! Needless to say I was nearly ten minutes late but we had a nice morning.

DH spent his free time today putting together the tallboy for the bathroom, and we're very pleased with it. I think we may get a magnetic childproof lock for it so we can keep medication out of DGD's reach. Putting up a medicine cabinet would be cluttering.

Today's shift was quiet, and I had some work news, including that they've not appointed to a leader post, and also that the 7am starts on the new rota have been dropped. That's really good news for a number of staff, and possibly also for the people we support, who won't get woken early by our arrival. It's also been suggested to me that I ask if I can work in our sister-unit which would remove me from some of my current sources of stress. I said I'd thought of that but didn't think it could be done because they wouldn't want to set a precedent. It seems, however, that there may already be a precedent, so perhaps it's something I should consider.

Spending:
Housekeeping - done by DH so I don't know how much.
Entertainment (coffees) £5.80