[kenneth d wheeler]

How do you cook for a loved one that has no sense of smell, is depressed knowing there is no cure for the loss of control and is losing visual dexterity? There is little concern for her nutrition only medication by her doctors. I realize they receive little education in this area but it doesn’t help.

The info on dietitians and nutritionists I find on web sites leans more toward weight control rather than nutritional health. I can cook almost anything but I need help. Since I retired 5 years ago  I’ve become the chief cook. The planning skills are sorely lacking and I have little to none understanding of how we process our vitamins and nutrients.

Parkinson’s in my wife’s body depending on medications efficiency produces either tremors or dyskiniesia , the inability to identify odors and the loss of visual acuity. These are needed for cooking and eating to fuel the body, awaken the mind and lift the spirit. All the senses are involved if we think about it and we think little of it most of the time. When we do think about it , it’s an absent minded urge , a craving or an image problem set off by cultural definitions. We are feeding our skin, eyes, neurological systems , other organs and now we’re starting to learn needs of our microbiome. If these systems do not have the proper fuel they soon start to break down even though we may not see it or feel it . Humans adapt consciously and then unconsciously in a very short amount of time. By the time these little adaptive tweeks fail our systems have been damaged. We heal miraculously when we are young and growing but not so much as we age. We seem to need a more and more refined fuel to keep our systems working and healing as we age.

Finding foods that she will eat throughout the day is always a problem. She’s never been a big eater beginning with an overbite, digestive upsets and lets not forget about the fact that her sense of smell hasn’t worked very well or not at all for the past 19 years. The kids are gone so eating because they have to be fed is a non-starter. Her tremors and medication restrictions (protein inhibits medication uptake) also impact cooking for herself. Oh, her meds are on a 3 hour schedule so she only has a 90 min window for any protein. Her tremors fire muscle activity enough so that i think of her as a long distance runner so muscle loss is always a factor. Thank god she is sleeping better so that some healing can be accomplished but even that requires nutrition and timing.

Needing help to come up with a long term plan and a structure to access it’s impact is important to her quality of life. What can i look for in choosing a dietitian or nutritionist ? Can i afford one while on social security? Do I need this professional monthly, yearly , semi-annually or just as needed?