Laughter is the best medicine

Lately Rick will watch any TV show with me and laugh. In the past, he was an intellectual. He mostly liked to watch educational shows; anything on PBS, National Geographic or Discovery Channel, and biographies. I have seen the biography of Winston Churchill about 100 times. He loved anything made by Ken Burns (funny but Rick kind of resembles Ken Burns and people have told him that). Now, with me or without me he always laughs.

It is good to be in the company of someone light. I love to hear him laugh. It makes me happy. You know it’s contagious when you are with someone in a good mood and It’s hard to be around people who are negative and complaining all the time. He laughs at America’s Funniest Home Videos and Ace Ventura Pet Detective and the sitcoms Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and especially Seinfeld. 

Faby, our caregiver, sometimes helps me cook. While she is cooking in the kitchen, she lets Rick watch TV in the bedroom, and he always laughs.

When I wrote about all the clinical trials we have tried to get into, the last one that we tried, in January of 2019 was the hyperbaric chamber. At first while in the glass coffin, he hated it because he is claustrophobic. After the pressure subsided a bit, they put Friends on the TV and Rick was laughing like he was stoned. I wonder if extra oxygen makes you feel stoned? He really loves Friends because of its simplicity.

The fact that he laughs at all the right spots is significant to me. We always hear that people with Alzheimer’s are sad and grumpy and some of them are. I am lucky because Rick is generally sweet and can laugh for hours. I love that. I think it means he still understands certain things and he is alive and close to me. As I said, I love to hear him laugh. I try lots of different things to get him to laugh and be joyful. He is the man of my dreams. The only man of my life.