caregiving: multiple sclerosis and cognition

Special thanks to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for enabling our story to bridge from the blogosphere to print media.

"A Caregiver’s Perspective: MS and Cognition" will appear in their Winter 2009 edition of MSFocus Magazine. Below is an excerpt:

"Our then elementary-age daughter discovered the first clue: Her mom laughed hysterically at the word “brick.” Then came the day I opened our monthly credit card bill to find $2,000 in charges from a home shopping network. Homecare agencies cancelled our aides due
to incidents involving my wife, Patti’s, verbal and physical outbursts. Finally, I returned home one afternoon to discover our stove top on fire while Patti sat unconcerned or unaware at the kitchen table.

Looking back, were there earlier clues that my wife’s MS symptoms might not stop with the physical? Yes, but who knew to look? We were still reeling from the physical symptoms of Patti’s diagnosis and trying to learn to live with MS as a family. In a few short years, my wife had become wheelchair-bound. We were swamped in physical adaptations, and in the early and mid- 90s, cognitive problems associated with MS were simply not mentioned very often..."

After years of journaling it was fascinating to work with a different medium including submitting copy, editors, revision, and such.

This journal / blog began, in part, four years ago because the challenges of people with progressive and severe MS, their caregivers, and families were invisible to mainstream MS publications.

Thank you, Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for this opportunity.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer
musings: Patrick Ponders ...