clifffaith
TUG Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2016
- Messages
- 6,744
- Reaction score
- 9,390
- Location
- San Juan Capistrano, CA
- Resorts Owned
- Formerly: Marriott, ILX, Westin, Diamond, Worldmark. Timeshare free as of 12/24.
If you've ever seen the ads for Prevagen and wondered if it worked for memory and brain function, as far as Cliff goes it definitely helps him.
The joke in our house has always been "if Cliff gets Alzheimer's no one will notice". When he was a boy (he's 82) his mother would have him walk to the store for milk and he'd come home with bread. His ex-wife called him Two Trip Harper. It has been my constant chore through our life together (35 years married this past Monday, and yes he had no clue it was our anniversary) to ride herd on him to get everyday life chores done, yet at the same time he is brilliant. His favorite story is Einstein meeting a colleague while walking across Princeton and stopping to chat. When they were done Einstein asks the colleague "which way was I walking?...ok, then I've already had lunch". That is Cliff to a T. And speaking of T's, I now have to watch him like a hawk to be sure he is changing his underwear and T-shirts. Have even had the discussion "do you need to sit down to take your underwear off so you won't fall?; do you need help getting your T-shirt over your head? No and no. So why do you smell like you are wearing dirty clothes? Stomps away to his computer.
So about three years ago we see the ad for Prevagen and he takes it for a year. Then we retired, and at $50 or so a bottle it is expensive, so we decided to stop buying it. Within 2 months I felt like I could tell he wasn't taking it, so we started it up again and just use every 40% off CVS coupon on Prevagen. We have enough of a stockpile (3 bottles) that we don't have to buy it right now.
The last 3-4 weeks have been a struggle. The word around the house is "inattentive". Cliff, listen to me, you are extremely inattentive and I am having to follow you around to be sure things get done. Blank stare. Cliff, you are forgetting or overlooking things, you need to be aware and concerned. Blank stare. During this time Aetna had him come in for a senior wellness check ($75 gift card without attending a timeshare presentation, what's not to like?!) He came home saying they gave him three words to remember, and that he'd repeated them in his mind several times, but only remembered the first word (banana).
Yesterday he is driving me home after I was sedated for an epidural, and we drive past CVS. I comment that it has been a long time since we've had to buy Prevagen, do we still have a large stash? Yes he says (I knew there was at least one bottle because my extra vitamin bottles live in the same place under the bathroom sink). I'm sitting at the lunch table having my first meal of the day, and Cliff starts rummaging in his pill box where all his pill bottles live in the kitchen cupboard, then he disappears and comes back and starts fussing with his morning/evening weekly pill box that lives next to his placemat. That's when I realized he was filling his container with Prevagen.
At some point, probably at least a month ago, he apparently emptied a Prevagen bottle, and then didn't move a fresh bottle out from under the sink and into his box in the kitchen. It will be interesting to see how long it takes his attentiveness to return now that he is starting up the Prevagen again. I knew something had changed, just didn't realize he was lacking his brain pill! The next time I notice excessive inattentiveness, I'll immediately suspect the Prevagen has fallen by the wayside. So I can certainly attest to Prevagen working for Cliff.
On the upside, when he gets a bug up his butt about something, I've learned over the years that fighting it reinforces it and saying nothing often allows whatever it is to just disappear. Ten days ago he had Moys surgery on squamous cell cancer on his scalp. They told me to make an appointment in one week for the stitches to come out. I did, but several minutes later they said please change that to two weeks. Well two weeks hit when we were scheduled for our first trip all year, so the appointment was set for today, and in fact right now. But Monday he gets a call "you missed your stitches removal appointment, can you come in an hour?" He starts rushing around and refuses to call them back and explain he has an appointment Thursday, obviously the original appt wasn't cancelled when the Thurs appt was made, and he wants the stitches out NOW. Jokes on him, after Doctor cleaned up the wound he said come back in two more weeks for stitch removal. Cliff comes home and I say you need to cancel the Thursday appt. No I'm going back again Thursday, I want the stitches out. Cliff they just looked at you and said you needed to heal two more weeks. Nope, I'm going back Thursday. So I shut up and he's sitting at his computer during his appt. Now if the lame person at the front desk calls to say he missed his appt, and I expect she will because she doesn't seem to be clued in on what is going on, he'll go rushing out the door hoping someone will think he is healed enough to remove the stitches (multiple doctors at the practice).
The joke in our house has always been "if Cliff gets Alzheimer's no one will notice". When he was a boy (he's 82) his mother would have him walk to the store for milk and he'd come home with bread. His ex-wife called him Two Trip Harper. It has been my constant chore through our life together (35 years married this past Monday, and yes he had no clue it was our anniversary) to ride herd on him to get everyday life chores done, yet at the same time he is brilliant. His favorite story is Einstein meeting a colleague while walking across Princeton and stopping to chat. When they were done Einstein asks the colleague "which way was I walking?...ok, then I've already had lunch". That is Cliff to a T. And speaking of T's, I now have to watch him like a hawk to be sure he is changing his underwear and T-shirts. Have even had the discussion "do you need to sit down to take your underwear off so you won't fall?; do you need help getting your T-shirt over your head? No and no. So why do you smell like you are wearing dirty clothes? Stomps away to his computer.
So about three years ago we see the ad for Prevagen and he takes it for a year. Then we retired, and at $50 or so a bottle it is expensive, so we decided to stop buying it. Within 2 months I felt like I could tell he wasn't taking it, so we started it up again and just use every 40% off CVS coupon on Prevagen. We have enough of a stockpile (3 bottles) that we don't have to buy it right now.
The last 3-4 weeks have been a struggle. The word around the house is "inattentive". Cliff, listen to me, you are extremely inattentive and I am having to follow you around to be sure things get done. Blank stare. Cliff, you are forgetting or overlooking things, you need to be aware and concerned. Blank stare. During this time Aetna had him come in for a senior wellness check ($75 gift card without attending a timeshare presentation, what's not to like?!) He came home saying they gave him three words to remember, and that he'd repeated them in his mind several times, but only remembered the first word (banana).
Yesterday he is driving me home after I was sedated for an epidural, and we drive past CVS. I comment that it has been a long time since we've had to buy Prevagen, do we still have a large stash? Yes he says (I knew there was at least one bottle because my extra vitamin bottles live in the same place under the bathroom sink). I'm sitting at the lunch table having my first meal of the day, and Cliff starts rummaging in his pill box where all his pill bottles live in the kitchen cupboard, then he disappears and comes back and starts fussing with his morning/evening weekly pill box that lives next to his placemat. That's when I realized he was filling his container with Prevagen.
At some point, probably at least a month ago, he apparently emptied a Prevagen bottle, and then didn't move a fresh bottle out from under the sink and into his box in the kitchen. It will be interesting to see how long it takes his attentiveness to return now that he is starting up the Prevagen again. I knew something had changed, just didn't realize he was lacking his brain pill! The next time I notice excessive inattentiveness, I'll immediately suspect the Prevagen has fallen by the wayside. So I can certainly attest to Prevagen working for Cliff.
On the upside, when he gets a bug up his butt about something, I've learned over the years that fighting it reinforces it and saying nothing often allows whatever it is to just disappear. Ten days ago he had Moys surgery on squamous cell cancer on his scalp. They told me to make an appointment in one week for the stitches to come out. I did, but several minutes later they said please change that to two weeks. Well two weeks hit when we were scheduled for our first trip all year, so the appointment was set for today, and in fact right now. But Monday he gets a call "you missed your stitches removal appointment, can you come in an hour?" He starts rushing around and refuses to call them back and explain he has an appointment Thursday, obviously the original appt wasn't cancelled when the Thurs appt was made, and he wants the stitches out NOW. Jokes on him, after Doctor cleaned up the wound he said come back in two more weeks for stitch removal. Cliff comes home and I say you need to cancel the Thursday appt. No I'm going back again Thursday, I want the stitches out. Cliff they just looked at you and said you needed to heal two more weeks. Nope, I'm going back Thursday. So I shut up and he's sitting at his computer during his appt. Now if the lame person at the front desk calls to say he missed his appt, and I expect she will because she doesn't seem to be clued in on what is going on, he'll go rushing out the door hoping someone will think he is healed enough to remove the stitches (multiple doctors at the practice).
