Happy Birthday, Alan! Today, Alan is 58 years old. (2/16/63)

We have started this site to keep family and friends in the loop on Alan's health. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from everyone who reached out during Alan's recent hospital stay, and unfortunately have returned to work and cannot keep up with the rate of communication that Alan deserves. I have journaled below, on February 15th, Alan's health history so that you can be current with Alan's condition. 

Alan has lived in nursing care for over 4 years at Arapahoe Good Samaritan Society as a resident living with Parkinson's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia. Prior to COVID, Alan came home one night every weekend and attended social outings that he enjoyed (wrestling, basketball, FFA, or just wings at the bowling alley). Alan was able to have visitors and take phone calls. 

COVID isolations have caused nursing home residents around the world to live sedentary lifestyles, exacerbating arthritis, injury recovery, anxiety, and as we now see, pneumonia. Without movement, residents are not able to regain prior functions. Alan's bout with pneumonia has left him unable to chew, swallow, or speak regularly, and we are fortunate to have received his PEG tube while he was at the hospital. I am truly grateful for all of the scientific advantages he has to maintain the highest quality of living that we can offer him. In addition to that, I am also truly grateful for friends and family who are praying for Alan, and for our family. Alan is aging faster than we had hoped and those of you who know him well know that he is a storyteller. Luckily, dementia gives him stories to tell, even though they are fictitious. Some days (before losing his words) he talked about having a rough day at work and was able to complain about that. Some days he claimed to need help backing up his pickup to the boat (believing he was at the lake). His nurses love his sense of adventure and his sense of humor. The cooks at the nursing home love that he loves to eat. 

As you read memories of Alan and see our family play out in pictures, I would like to invite you to leave a fun memory so that we can all re-live that memory with you as we are celebrating what Alan has to hold on the inside. I have recently stumbled across some photos from his youth and have enjoyed remembering how ornery I remembered him to be (we have known each other since we were teenagers). And we want you all to know that this is our love story, the one we vowed: for better and worse, in sickness and health, for richer and for poorer. 

Thanks all, 
Heidi