Ok, so it seems I am focusing too much on what is difficult, or painful, or that I really really really dislike! On the weekend, it was the progessive annoying cognitive disabilities due entirely to dementia that caused me to feel bereft and angry.

Last night, and today, I’ve decided I hate osteo arthritis…

Which does put things in rather into perspective, as dementia is not the ony thing I find annoying, or occasionally hate, and hence part of why I despise even more being referred to as a ‘dementia sufferer‘.

After a few hours of gentle activity yesterday, the arthritis in my right thumb and joint was so painful I was unable even to mobilise it a fraction, and I have had to bandage it, then, and again today after using it for 30 minutes under the guide of an exercise physiologist. It really hurts!

So, the lesson in that for me has simply cemented why it is so very harmful to use the negative of suffering, only for dementia.

But onto suffering, and the lack of adequate health care or education about dementia, vs arthritis or other chronic or terminal health conditions…

• In my country, rehabilitation is usually offered for a condition where mobility may be impacted;

• Dementia and arthritis are two such conditions, but dementia misses out;

• Even when it was not visible, no one has ever questioned whether ‘I really have arthritis’;

• No one has ever said, ‘but you don’t look like you have arthriusis’;

• No one has every questioned me on whether the pain was real, and so on.

Human rights, including adequate health care including rehabilitation for everyone, except people with dementia. We are ‘being left behind’, in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals, and on top of that, the world continues to institutionalize and segregate us when we need assisted long or short term term care. No wonder some people with dementia sometimes get annoyed.

And if you believed the many advocacy organisations, the media, and a great many care partners and family members, you would begin to believe it is only dementia that is a ‘hateful’ disease, and the only one that causes negative (normal) human responses, and ‘suffering’.

Perspective…