After I blogged my “Living and coping with dementia” I was astounded by the reach of my blog.
Valuable advice came in from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and even Israel.
They were from authoritative sources and I have been able to implement all of them almost immediately.
First was a leading Indian doctor, Dr. Rajen Ghadiok, who spoke to me by a conference call from Delhi organised by a dear friend, Deepak Deshpande, who advised consultation with a psychiatrist to handle the lack of cooperation with the home carers who come to help Annikki and me.
Annikki enjoying seeing a picture of Mika wanting to drive our car at our Velacheri house in Madras in 1075.
Annikki remembers he 2 year old Mika telling our driver that he was not going to drive the car forwards into the house but backwards!
The second was using long term associations to generate the long term memory, which I have been doing with the digital photo frame. This came from a dear friend Mark Sopher from Israel.
Thanks to a gift from my good friend, Isaac Sunderajen, who lived in Oulu (Now in California) and was the CEO of my two friends company, Codenomicon, I was able to set up and play over 2500 past favourite memories of our life from a memory stick just, where Annikki relaxes.
We talk about the memories and she recalls many of the incidents and the people, and she is happy thinking of them. Annikki enjoys reliving those beautiful experiences.
The third advice was from another dear friend, Rustom Dadabhoy, from Bombay, who had attended a conference about dementia. There was reference to an old Indian practice where mother's apply coconut oil around the navel to help generate good memory.
I took the last one a bit further, as our daughter, Susanna, is an expert on essential oils. She had told me that the largest organ we have is the skin and the application of essential oils on the skin has a very positive effect on various faculties and helps against various conditions.
I referred the book I have on Essential Oils and found the section on Memory.
I found that essential oils Rosemary, Peppermint, Clove and Basil are particularly good to help develop memory.
I made up a blend with the carrier oils of virgin coconut oil mixed with virgin avocado, which helps blood circulation, and virgin olive oil. I added a bit of fragrant lavender oil and voilá, we had something that Annikki just adored and applied it to her hands, forehead and neck as a perfume.
As a matter of coincidence (?) I have a picture of both Deepak and Rustom with me at the Findians get-together that Annikki and I hosted in Bombay in 2009!
Now we will see the effects over the next three months.
I am not hoping for miracles but, with our high salmon fish diet providing us with sufficient Omega oil, I am hopeful that the deterioration will be slowed down considerably.
God has blessed both of us with good physical conditions,
I hope you will add your prayers to keep us fit and active.
