Wayne reflects on being challenged about his dementia.

Hello Diaries. This is Wayne from MemoryBilia. down in the Garden of Eden in Kent. Not quite the usual self at the moment. I came back from peer group today and I’d hoped that at that peer group I’d hope I would get the chance to talk about something that has been bugging me for a few days but the peer group was different today and we just didn’t get around to the usual things and updates & that so I didn’t get the chance. Going back to the last MemoryBilia meeting and – before that just to say I kind of got my dementia, the vascular part of my dementia, well it started from a major heart attack back in 2004 so I’ve sort of been wandering around living with it, learning it, and trying to get by with it for sort of 15 years now and for lots of those I’ve kind of got used to the idea of professionals , as is their need, and social services, council, etc. etc. , government, especially DWP, challenging whether or not you have got dementia and whether or not you have got better and all this sort of thing. I kind of got used to that and although it worries me I dismiss it a lot of the time now, just sort of throw it away and think ah well, they talk and that’s it . They have to do it. At the MemoryBilia meeting last Wednesday, another member , a new guy, turned up and I who I half forgive because he is new and doesn’t know us. He was having a go at me because I was so chirpy and seemingly capable . I was having a great day. I like MemoryBilia meetings because they are challenging and that. Having a go at me and saying that it doesn’t seem as if I have really got dementia. Am I sure that I’ve got it? It’s the first time ever in 15 years that I’ve had somebody with dementia, especially somebody, you know, who’s gives a few talks? and things. He’s supposedly out there trying to educate other people about dementia and he doesn’t even understand that we can have good days and bad days. This has just really destabilised me and thrown me, the fact that some other person with dementia is challenging and, because I’m good at coping with it, sort of challenging whether I have got it or not. I was going to raise it at the peer group today and didn’t get the chance. I thought.. ah well, I’ll ring up, make a diary entry . Maybe just me voicing out loud will make me feel better. I’ll let you know whether that works or not sometime soon. Alright. By for now.