500 Characters isnt enough when youre about to #euthanize your 19yr old cat and need to write it out.

She has been unable to hold down food or water for a while now. She urinates and defecates when she pukes and my brain thinks it can all be cured. It cant. She is #dying

This finality has thrown me into a spacey and flat #headspace that feels rude and distanced.

Ive had her for 19 yrs. At 4pm today Miss Maia will die.
I just dont want her to suffer.
#cats
#pets
#grief
#cat
#death

Bart De Strooper presented at the Copenhagen AD/PD-conference an excellent sketch of the three main inflection points in the pathophysiological evolution of Alzheimer's disease, https://www.alzforum.org/news/conference-coverage/big-picture-three-inflection-points-mark-amyloid-cascade

My own transition from amyloid plagues to p-tau and tangles was retarded by a four years' anti-amyloid therapy in a clinical reaearch project during 2017-22 (aducanumab). Sadly, the most probable explanation for my rapidly worsening cognitive problems may indeed be the tau-tangles, which I somehow avoided earlier. I know there are experimental therapies around somewhere for those gremlins too, but sadly not within my own reach. With respect to my AD, I'm afraid, it's "too late, my friend".

I encourage anybody with a slowly lethal disease to keep mentally in touch with it as long as you can. That's what we human beings were made for. 🤗

#alzheimer #ad #at #disease #medical #amyloid #tau #lethal #sairaus #alzForum #realism #humanity #reflection #thinking #dying #terminallyill #metacognition #tietoisuus #consciousness

(kind of a sub-toot, but in the context of my family drama rather than my mastodon drama)

If you have a someone who is about to die, there's no such thing as "too early" when it comes to planning for their death.

Invite the people who want to say goodbye early rather than late. If the person lives longer than you expected, all good, and they might get a chance to say goodbye twice. Don't wait till the person who is leaving has drifted so far away that you've lost that chance for connection.

Don't prevent people from talking about death and dying if that's what they need. People have the right to opt out but it's disrespectful to shut down that conversation for other people.

There is nothing wrong or weird about planning the funeral and memorial service while the person is still alive. The shock of grief does weird things to families and friends, and ideally you shouldn't be wrestling with funeral logistics while in that state.

#dying #TerminalIllness