LEWY BODY DAILY JOURNAL

This is the story of Pam and John; she in her early 50’s and John is 62. Pam is a college professor. John taught at a local community college until diagnosed with Parkinson’s in March 2008, then Lewy Body Dementia in April.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

sick and tired of being sick and tired

I went to my doctor today and she said I had a bacterial sinus infection and gave me antibiotics. So hopefully I will start feeling better soon.

I arranged for an older graduate student named Mike to come over yesterday to meet with John. He is going to help John start recording family history--both the stories John knows and they will also interview John's 96 year old aunt who lives in a retirement community nearby. I may take over the interviewing when John gets to telling his own story, but there is a lot of family history he wants to get down first. Mike will figure out the technology--a digital voice recorder with two clip on microphones, probably Audacity to edit the files, and Dragon Naturally Speaking for some transcribing. John seems enthusiastic--he said months ago that he was going to interview Aunt Florence and had not made any progress towards starting so I think he is glad to have help getting focused. He has a lot of background in oral history interviewing so he can also see himself as teaching Mike.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

YES !!!!!!
That's perfect! you don't have to do it all yourself--but Lewies need help -so help him by finding a helper! Bet this makes everyone feel better!! John has a goal-and someone to push him toward it.(Not you). It's helping your kids and others preserve family history. AND HELPING YOU TO FIND MORE TIME FOR YOUR OWN NEEDS.
CREATIVE HELPING SEEMS LIKE A GREAT NEW YEAR RESOLUTION. I'll try it myself.

Hi Australia !! your comments are right on target.
Good to hear from Pauline too! Don't go beating up on yourself- you did a great job with your Daddy, and taught the rest of us to be prepared to find compassion and strength in difficult times.
Di