Patricia Davis Purser Faison Tricia's Journey

Welcome to our Caring Bridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated with the same information to everyone from one place.  We appreciate your prayer, concern, words of hope and encouragement.
I suppose I should begin with the diagnosis.  In 2015 Tricia began seeing a neurologist.  She didn't share this with anyone. A few years later signs of her declining health began to show. We became aware of her alertness and judgment while driving and it became a serious concern. After much conversation she finally agreed to me going with her to see the neurologist and then I was given insight into what he thought was going on, which was Alzheimer's disease. Tricia's speech was being effected and along with physical therapy and occupational therapy,  came speech therapy. It was in speech therapy where our path took a turn. We were directed to another neurologist in Chapel Hill thinking the diagnosis of ALZ being incorrect.  There, she was diagnosed with two issues. One being Corticobasal Degeneration and the other Apraxic  Aphasia.  It was good to get a correct diagnosis on one hand but saddened to hear the prognosis and treatment were almost the same as for ALZ. 
Fast forward to more recent matters:   It has been a long stressful time seeing the decline in Tricia's motor skills and her mind not being effected is an amazing factor in our journey.  One of the tests in the latter diagnosis was to name her uncles and aunts.  Well she not only named all 11 children in her father's family but she named them in the order they were born and included their spouses.  Granted this took several minutes and she named a few out of order but quickly corrected herself.  Also telling the story of her dad being awarded the Purple Heart a few days after "D" day and being shipped to England to recuperate and that is where he met Tricia's mom ,Joyce (Nana).   (Rumor has it that I married Tricia just to have Nana as my mother-in-law).
We move forward again to current matters: Last week (May 28th) she was sitting at our table with Meghan enjoying the company of several of her dearest neighborhood friends  (see photo) who had brought lunch and had a full afternoon of reminiscing.   Here we are today gathering around her hospital bed with her unable to stand or walk, but still smiling, laughing, some talking, praying, singing, watching Hallmark and yes some tears. One more item that I wish to clarify.  This site is an amazing way to get information out to everyone who wants to keep up with our current situation.  The donation incentive is for the Caring Bridge web site  and we do not want anyone to feel obligated nor pressured to donate.  We are not trying to discourage you from donating to this Caring Bridge organization even though we have, we just wanted to be transparent with you as to where your donation will go. Thank you for visiting.