Thanks, Q. I always hope people will hear my voice in my writing & that one statement was definitely one we'd be laughing over if you were sitting here talking to me.
As to the Benadryl, of course, the damage was done long before my mom ever ingested a single pill. I just got an email informing me that my mom's last surviving sister died yesterday. She must have been in her 90s, too, & I know from her husband & a phone conversation with her that her Alzheimer's was very bad, instantly. But it took her many years to die after the diagnosis. My mom had dementia, but no doctor ever wrote Alzheimer's down there.
When I knew it was bad with my mom, I had a phone call from her in 2012. She chatted as usual, with the usual exaggerations about how long it had been since I'd been "home." Then she started complaining that she didn't have my phone number. Well, she had phoned me that day. She demanded I give it to her while she got her address book opened up to my page. Then she went on a scree about how many numbers had been scratched out or written over, what a mess it was, how she couldn't even read it. She said, "This is YOUR handwriting. YOU did this! You messed everything up!" Since I was 150 miles away from her, I obviously wasn't writing in her book. Plus, I have calligraphic handwriting, which I learned in high school after having illegible penmanship all my life.
Anyway, as far as Benadryl goes, I was using it as a sleep aid so I wouldn't rely on Ambien or Unisom or melatonin or wine or scotch! Yes, those are all my go-to insomnia beaters. I have a great deal of parasomnia, including walking in my sleep, but the insomnia is the worst. I noticed on days after taking Benadryl the night before that I was groggy & forgetful. It was really profound. Then I read, years later, that Benadryl had now been linked to dementia. I haven't taken it since. it's not the Benadryl per se. It's the active ingredient, diphenhydramine. And the really messed up part is that if you read the labels on every over-the-counter sleep aid, except Unisom, they all contain a big hit of diphenhydramine. Unisom also uses an antihistamine, doxylamine, but it works amazingly & so far, there's been no negative test results.
I also recently stopped taking two or three of my prescription meds, with my doctor's blessing, after a 10-year study showed a link between them & dementia in 50 PERCENT! of all subjects in the study. I don't care if I die young, but I do not want to die in a rest home or rehab center, in a vegetative state. I have Alzheimer's on both sides of my family. I can't take unnecessary risks.
I had the coolest uncle in the world, Hank. He was a CRC minister, but enjoyed batting theology about with me. We both loved C.S. Lewis & Lewis loved Carl Jung, which made me very happy. Hank & I both loved fountain pens and actually wrote letters to each other. I have dozens of emails from him too, a sign of our mutual affection. Once a month my paternal relatives--7 aunts, 2 uncles, totaling 10 when you add my dad--got together at a Denny's restaurant for breakfast. In 2015, Hank started acting weird. Then I learned he had attacked his beloved wife because he thought she was an animal who was going to kill him. And the fire department had been called to their home several times because he started fires in the basement by overloading the woodstove.
Then, very suddenly, he was absent. They tried to keep him home but he kept running away. They put him in a rehab facility & he went downhill fast. I barely got to visit him there before he died. On the day I was there, they had to change his diaper mid-visit (behind the closed door of his room). I remember his face after, but I also took pictures that day & his shame & defeat was written all over his face. Alzheimer's took everything from him.
The family has fallen apart on my dad's side now, since Hank disappeared. He was our elder statesman, our in loco parentis, It's a loss so great, we'll never get over it.
So, don't take Benadryl or diphenhydramine. And make sure your prescription drugs aren't bad for your brain. Amen.
