Carer's Allowance under threat

In the UK, where we still have a vestigial welfare state, there is a paltry means-tested Carer's Allowance.

Now it is under threat.  But it has been shown that the contribution of all the carers saves the country a staggering £119bn.

There's a comment on this from the excellent charity Carers UK here.

Parkinson's Update

I've posted previously about my wife's Parkinson's symptoms.  You can find these posts by putting 'Parkinson's' into the search box (top left).

We last saw the Parkinson's doctor when my wife was up to three-quarters of a normal daily dose of Sinemet (Co-caroldopa).  We had tried going a bit further but upping the first dose of the day caused horrible vomiting. He said it probably was the Sinemet and that anti-emetics might help. I explained that because of S's past history, I was a bit wary about this and he was quite happy for me to continue with three-quarters for a while though he said that, in time, the dose would have to be raised to get some benefit and we might need the anti-emetic then,

He also told us he was retiring and wouldn't be seeing us again. I was disappointed about this - he's good. He said he would refer us to the local 'Day Hospital' where a multi-disciplinary team assesses and assists people with PD/Parkinsonism.

We got an appointment there quite promptly.  There was a fairly thorough assessment, though some repetition, and we had a conversation with the doctor who suggested that another way to deal with the drug side-effect problem was to keep to the same individual dose but take it 4 times a day instead of 3, thereby avoiding larger individual doses. We have gradually raised the dose, without any ill-effects and some improvement in flexibility and alertness.

I was a bit disappointed by the physio aspect. They gave us a handout which has some useful-looking ideas but most of which would probably be beyond someone with dementia. I looked online for exercises and this looks good, though again some things would not be possible.

I'm still searching for appropriate exercises that can be done for/with someone.

What does it feel like to die?

Living in the dementia world you cannot escape thinking about death. Regularly, you read online about the end if life experience of people with dementia and their carers.  Similarly, people you meet at the various activities you attend disappear from time to time and months or sometimes weeks later we hear of their passing.

And everyone who cares for a person with dementia knows that they are likely to have to face the death of the person they are keeping alive, unless their own death comes first.

I came across this interesting article which seems to offer some comfort for those who believe in life after death but also to those who would find the inevitability of their own death easier to accept if there was a fair chance that it could be painless, peaceful and, even, uplifting.