99% sure that was also the exact title of a somewhat abbreviated version of a similar mishap, a story which is among my earliest recollections of reading ahead (we never got to it in class, nor several others I thought more memorable than the assigned stuff).

Vocabularly was a bit simpler, probably a 5th grade? reader used in 3-4th grade.
An early, fortuitous Lesson: Read. Ahead.
Screw 'assignments', where feasible - or try to work out a deal with Teach to skip the pabulum.


(This was, of course quite prior to my realizing that the central theme of many lives seems to be Ohhh... SHIT! Maybe several times before the final one.)

Lots of Good Stuff in the links and sub-linkies; must peruse anon. I may have worked out some of these, but it's always good to read any articulate ones.

Long time since I read Bertie's epistle (and contrasted same with the sly-doggery of the supra-imaginitive CS Lewis; one goes for the intellect; t'other for the emotional brain, with 12-gauge scattershot). I treasure BR's little -Very Clever- tract, signed and sent me ~ the time of the Aldermaston Peace marches..

Sorry to hear of a problem I've had some experience amidst.
One always Hopes that elders in one's care: have gone through enough triage of all that babble about us - and are not paralyzed-fearful by the prospect of leaving. One hopes, but - Murica has strange ideas on this-all, as we've noted here many times.

I was Conservator for both an aunt and uncle, simultaneously. By the time my 85 yo namesake-Uncle fell before mine eyes, as we returned from a shopping expedition -and just a few feet from my being able to intervene- my aunt had pretty much Lost It .. though for a lengthy period she could sorta fake 'It'.

Uncle's mental acuity was ~fine, though he too said a while later that, "he hadn't realized.." just how far his mate had strayed from 'It'. {sigh} How Can That Happen? ""Mate""

I was *most fortunate* in the fact that these two had earlier, been most helpful to an (ex-) family member-by-marriage - who happened to be an RN! or LVN, not clear. So while she was tending one post-op {usual broken hip} she was also tending the other mobile one. I made sure she got paid for a fraction of the 24/7, at least.

I did experience what it's like to see a regression to.. near-perfect replaying of the interests? mindset of a young girl (omitting the saga of my uncle, in parallel - who was cogent til the end). Then too, the other fiduciary duties were eased by association with a quite Fine Person (who happened to have gone into the law. Oh well.) Often, today especially, a dearth of $$ is as huge an impediment as one's ignorance of All the possibilities.. and much depends upon what is one's view of AMA 'advice', alternatives, life experience. All that uncatalogueable stuff.

This was not my problem, as there weren't any Heroic options to be tried. I spent what seemed appropriate of their funds with 0-thought re 'conserving' those for heirs. (This is not hard if one recognizes that we are responsible for what we Know - but I've seen some choke on the imaginary Zero-sum game, especially within the constipated MBA mindset-of-Life.)

All would have been Much harder, had there not been this RN - in it for love not $. So I sympathize with what must seem a quandary. [my first name -curlicue splat- vom -splotch- com] if I can offer any items from experience - will try.

Natch, every detail is guaranteed different in every case. All you have are your wits - fortunately you're well-equipped, even if it may not seem so .. especially when trying to estimate "the next few weeks/months" :-/

(You also get a Free Review of all that stuff you thought you 'knew' - minus the weasel-phrases all about, in the air, even. The earnestly-delivered Presumptuous Ones are hardest to smile through, I wot)


Luck!

moi

Our culture spews out so many words/day - no one Could keep up. Even re just.. tracking down all the titles of so-called Professional societies! Publish/perish guarantees an infinite supply of words. Decisions.. decisions..

My experience in early '80s, of going out-of-country with a friend, so she could try the techniques of a Dr. Gerson (too long a story for sound bites) showed me what 'nutrition' can do regarding so-called incurable so-called 'diseases'. (Yes I have er Issues with much of the pill-formulizing / especially pill-Selling approach; trouble with the 'disease' characterization and then with -- the treatment of symptoms: the very pardigm of allopathic medicine.)

I have even more 'trouble' with the massive %iatrogenic deaths, accepted as 'normal' throw of the dice. (And my disdain for the products of Murican med schools became solidified - while working with same, delivering heavy-ion beams to real patients.. along with real physics. I saw how they worked and how little most understood of even - the consequences of the ability to use a 'beam' with the precision of a scalpel -- and how it was that these usually regressed to "what they'd been taught" - about protons, etc. etc.) 'Science' ken is not anywhere near #4 even, in what gets you through US Med schools - though non-stuttering pronunciation of sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate is a big Plus.

Fresh, organically grown vegetables, meat treated as a source of the little *needed* protein (as a daily %total) + some bio-active enzymes and a few other things like goats-milk yogurt, sweetened for Murican tastes: such a regimen {there are books} has produced results which even I have witnessed. Quite fewer grains than we suppose are nice - or even, hardly-any - another surprising one. Lo-carbs - now seeming to be as much about vanity weight-loss (for many) as about general nutrition.. is another plank in the platform, but never the sole principle. (We have to bear in mind that carbs --> sugars and Muricans are rife with varying degrees of diabetes, mostly untreated until well-along..)

Last I was around a US hospital, any knowledge or concern-about 'human nutrition' (from chiildren through old people) was apparently well off any radars. One needed only to look at the crap served to reach that inference. Could be a little better today (?) ever since Sen. ___? tossed $100M into NIH some years ago and mentioned loudly to the boffins (as described in a quite recent Frontline), some results of a survey:

Showing the %Muricans who regularly employ alt.medicine approaches to their health AND a certain other factoid: only 28% of those in a large-enough study for decent stats: ever TOLD their AMA guy about what they were doing! (if they had an AMA guy).

Relevance: there's some evidence too, that the sort of sane nutrition as has been seen to promote robust health generally, and as is seen to assist the immune system in doing what it does best .. can, apparently also effect changes in cognitive faculties. (No 1st-person experience of such changes, BTW. 2nd person/ long-time observer hearsay, though.)

It's not my style (not much of an innate Interest) to follow the progress / and lack of same of this complex matter of Good Health over years and years - but circumstances have rubbed my nose in aspects. I have visited 'havens' where the PDR is Not the bible nor is "what Rx to prescribe today?" the question often asked.

I've also had long chats with a person given '3 mos' to live == 'incurable cancer'. (Her recovery to evidently good, say 'robust' health a year later - was labelled by her ex-MD as it usually is: 'spontaneous remission'. She was pretty young.) Talked to others, there; not all thrived. There is a Murican mindset re medicine. And it is taught assiduously. There are also loonies who are their own worst enemy - foolishly eschewing the utility of standard medical blood work-ups, ignoring diagnoses, etc. One can always use the data / need not follow the PDR 'remedy'. er PDR == Physician's Desk Reference

(Another factoid probably Googleable: the 'average' Murican over (65? years of age, forget #) is on *13* different 'medications'. You do the math for 13! interactions as in factorial. Or even 10!)

I suspect you could Google for more material than a normal person would want to digest.. but the possibility exists that -simply- paying very close attention to what these folks are living-on might produce surprising results -- and is an option highly unlikely to Harm.

And yes: non-contaminated 'live' food is not as cheap or abundant in (most) stores as is normal fare. Wild salmon (not farm-raised, for a number of reasons) costs typ 50+% more. Salmon appears to be right up there BTW in desirability for the protein ration, not only for its improvement of the Omega-3 ratio of lipids.

More would be proselytizing. Trouble is: we are ALL stuck with 'anecdotal evidence' -- especially when we experiment on ourselves (I have - still am).

But if you are seeing no signs of progress - I suggest only that, there are alternatives to much of the pharmchem suggested today as 'normal maintenance' for those the age of your charges. You may not be able to reverse the mental losses, no matter what you do -- still, 'medicine' is pretty ignorant about pretty much, especially when: being Sure "there is no course-of-treatment for ___" IMO.

Alas, there is no Truth.com, except in the eyes of True Believers. I know I could do better than I do, but then I'm lazy - even about further researching. I accept the crap shoot, in any case. Eschewing standard nostrums often demands a prodigious amount of extra work; many lack the time even to begin finding, say, "whom do I trust for assistance/consultation?" (Just as there are few chapels for the spiritually inclined who eschew organized 'religion', I suppose ;-)


Luck --

moi