I’ll be there - I’ve always wanted to see us face Ream Madrid in the flesh - but given our form, genuinely worried.
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We have a family history of strokes over three generations. My Dad, two Brothers and a Sister have all suffered strokes as well as two Nephews. I saw an article in a newspaper many years ago about a tiny mesh tube being inserted in a vein in a patient’s neck that massively reduced the risk of strokes. The op could be done and was usually just a ‘day case’ affair. I asked my GP about it during an appointment about another matter. His reply was that the NHS wouldn’t sanction it because of the cost. He went on to say that the cost of recovery treatment from a stroke was many times the cost of the op. But the NHS preferred to do it that way. Talk about bolting the stable door? 
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for your own health, may be worth a private look?
Not sure where to put this. Mods if this needs to go into another thread, please move it.
Our lovely @LaurazRed is cycling raising money for Dementia. She is having problems logging in TAN at the moment, so she asked me to put this out. If any of our family of Reds can spare a few pounds for a worthy charity, please donate and help our LaurazRed. Thank you in advance from her.
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@Maria found my way back in thanks. I know it’s such a big ask particularly in today’s financial climate but it mean a great deal to me. I’ve only ever spoken about my personal situation to Maria, but I’ve always found this group friendly and supportive. Also thanks to @ISMF1 for helping with getting me back on TAN.
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Maybe make a new thread to increase the visibility 
Good luck with fund raise !!
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Donation made.
Great cause, very close to my heart.
Good luck
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@Dane Thank you so much I may as well be honest and say it’s my mother who has it and I can honestly say it is horrendous to see the shell of a person as she’s now become someone I struggle to see as my Mum now. That’s partly why I have been absent from TAN.
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I hear you @Dane and @LaurazRed, its so awful seeing your loved ones deteriorate in this way, I hope the medical experts find a way to at least slow down or halt this disease.
Yup, horrible heart breaking condition.
My mother in law, who I was very close to, died in 2014 after suffering from vascular dementia.
I raised money for Dementia charities doing a half marathon in 2015.
Massive incentive to do well, and I’m sure she would have been chuffed for me for breaking 2 hours 
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@Dane my ex mother in law suffered three mini strokes which put together is considered one stroke. The main byproduct of that was nearly full blown dementia and nearly complete incontinence.
It is hard to reconcile in your mind that the person you used to know is no longer there
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I know exactly how that feels as do so many others. It’s like a slow motion car crash you watch it happen effectively you can’t do anything about it. So the only thing I can do is support my Mum and fundraising. I’ve never donated as much as this to charity but needed to do something.
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Another thing, and I and my ex felt guilty about it but also sometimes we couldn’t control ourselves…is that her mother’s erratic and irrational behaviour would genuinely piss us off from time to time. She’d shout at my daughters for no reason…like she “remembered” something that never happened…and any time anyone opened the front door of the house she’d go full paranoid about our house being broken into.
I went to visit my great uncle (he introduced my parents) two weeks back in the hospital. he’s 82, couldn’t remember my name. I worked with him for three years… He was pretty happy, but he kept calling me buddy because he couldn’t remember. it’s so hard to watch.
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Not attempting to take the seriousness away from this illness but I will tell you a little story about the only time I have witnessed this first hand…
It was 1980, I’m in my mid teens, my Grandad who was in his late 70’s had been struggling with similar and seemed to be slowly and gradually getting worse if some of the snippets from the family were true… forgetting things, not recognising people, asking the same things 3 or 4 times within the hour and other stuff like that which was hard to comprehend if he was to be compared with himself 5-6yrs earlier.
Anyway, my dad decided to arrange a night out at the local social club and invite absolutely everyone in the family along with anyone connected to the family… neighbours etc. He said he wanted everyone in attendance to make sure my Grandad, whether he could again remember it or not, he wanted him to feel extra special and for us to collectively show our appreciation for being who he was, who he is, what he meant to us etc…
The night arrives and almost the whole of the social club is taken over by the family… tables have been arranged so they snake around the room, with every one in his line of sight and he was approachable to everyone… Several kitties had been started in differing small groups, pint pot glasses on tables here there and everywhere were full with money and the night was going well…
Being one of the younger generation, and realising if there was stuff I had always wanted, or needed to ask him then this night would be as good as any… so I manoeuvred myself into my dads seat right next to my Grandad… In between people coming up and shaking his hand, patting him on the back, I managed to have a little chat here and there with him… He asked me, while pointing to all these different glasses with money overflowing from them on the various tables, what they were, and what are they for…? This was a guy that had visited pubs for his entire life so he would have known what they were… but circumstance’s with him as they were, I thought it was understandable… I explained what the purpose was, and he was nodding his head in agreement during my explanation of people forming small groups so more order can be established in going to the bar and buying the drinks.
He says to me, holding his finger to his lips for me to stay silent, will I do him a big favour… could I find out what every single person would like to drink because he would like to buy one for everyone… Tearing the face cover of 3-4 beer mats to give myself something to write upon what is going to be a humungous list… I tell him it will take about 20mins but when the list is done I will bring it back… Name in first column, type of drink in second column… Having to explain what I was doing to more or less every single person as I took their order, it took me absolutely ages… Anyway, nearly 60 drinks were listed up and I took my seat alongside him again… So showed him the beer mats with all this scribbled writing on and he puts his hand on mine and lowers it behind the cover of the table out of sight, so no-one can see it… He slips this large wad of notes that would have choked a donkey out of his inside jacket pocket and pushed it into my coat pocket in one swift movement that any spy to spy transaction would be proud of… At that moment I guessed he wanted to buy these drinks but, as per his manner, he didn’t want to make a fuss about it… all hush hush
Wait my turn at the bar and tell the barmaid I have this humongous list and plenty of trays will be needed… She asks this barman guy to help her with order for him to do the pints and bottles and she will do the spirits and wines… Looking over to my Grandad, giving him the thumbs up sign to our big secret of buying everyone a drink on his behalf… everything within his idea is going to plan. He is looking back at me, in-between people having a moment or a chat with him, and all good me thinks… he seems to recognise me, a little smile appears across his face… Yeah he seemed like my Grandad from old…
Passing these overflowing trays across to others so they can carry them to the various tables… everything is getting busier and busier to try and get these drinks done at more or less the same time so we can all toast him together…
Looking at the barmaid starting to tap the differing costs into the till it was the first sign that the big order was almost done… My hand goes into my pocket trying to guess roughly what the bill will be I pull out this wad…
Only it wasn’t a wad of money was it… no no no.! It was his electricity bill, his rates bill still in their envelopes, and two pages of the local paper, all folded up with origami precision into a tight wad of paper… WTF I thought.! Looks over at him, he still got that little smile on his face, or was it a smirk… who knows… anyway, I’m in deep shit because I have ordered all these drinks and have not got anywhere near enough to pay the tab…! I turn into some human windmill trying to catch the attention of my dad to get him come rescue the situation.
To this day, I am still confused as to whether it was his little joke he played on me, or he genuinely felt as though he give me his wage packet… Anyway, it happened, and I am glad it actually did…
As I write this now, It is a story you have left with all of us that has obviously stood the test of time
RIP Grandad… Never forgotten :0)
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My Mum in Law (Lily) was diagnosed with Alzheimers just about the time I retired. Because Mrs CDO (Suzie) was still working and with us living just yards away from her I was the one who had most contact with her. Luckily she was diagnosed really early and given the tablets that there was a fuss about in the press at one time. (They were in the press because they were a really good treatment for the disease but GPs were loath to prescribe them because of the cost). Lily was ‘forgetful’ in the early stages and would use all sorts of tricks to remember things. Also early on she started making excuses not to go out. Her favourite saying was “I can’t go out with this cold. I don’t want to be giving it to anyone”.
Again luckily Suzie’s Sister, Debbie had read a lot about the disease and told me stuff that came in handy. Like not correcting things that Lily would say because she believed what she was saying. She used to tell me all sorts of tales about what the family had been up to.
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@Commando,
That was just like my mum. She was very good at getting of situations and always denied that she had a memory problem, when the memory clinic nurse would visit her every 6 months. Also, trying to get her out of the house was such a hard challenge. My mum would say, she had headache or the classic " i have a cold" and it would take 3 of my cousins to come to the house and convince her. Some reason, she always responded well to a man, even when the memory clinician used to come!
The tablets mum had were really good. My mum’s GP was excellent, she made sure my mum got those tablets. They really helped slowing down the disease. We were extremely lucky in that respect.
Edit: those tricks to think they remember things , i was told is called ‘confabulation’, very common in people with Dementia.
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What’s the best way to learn/improve my darts?
I had a board in my bedroom growing up, and I’d play a fucking lot - but I only ever aimed for the T20, over and over and over, and I can still hit it somewhat naturally, but I’m at a loss to hit anything else on the board with the same consistency.
I’ve been playing (alone) about an hour or two in the afternoons, and sometimes I see more purpose and consistency, but it could be gone by the next day and I’m marking up my poor mother-in-law’s wall. Is the trick to simply keep playing?
I have noticed I’m significantly better after three whiskeys; everything starts feeling easy, until ca the sixth whiskey, when I become a danger to myself and those around me. I used to play on pool teams and had that same issue (albeit pool balls are not as potentially injurious).
(Yes, I am currently unemployed. Why’d you ask?).
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get a corkboard behind the dartboard and protect the wall.
as for the whisky…know your limit, play within it. or try edibles.
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Surely there’s something to be said for fear of failure.
Don’t worry, I’ll repair the wall before I move out. No mother-in-laws were harmed in the making of this film (if they had been, it surely would’ve been a hit in Manchester).