Please Compare and Comment

It has been suggested that I let you the reader be the judge. Is Betty Greenlee plagiarizing my work or not? Please comment. My original piece is below - typos and all in both pieces, and also in my first post. She changed nothing except the title and by line. Check the dates, too.

Things you WILL want to know about Alzheimers

by Betty Greenlee on Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 6:34pm

Alzheimer’s: the word alone is enough to send chills through family members. It came to our attention last week how even in today’s society most people don’t know much about this disease. Unfortunately my family knows first hand how it destroys a person and disrupts the peace in the family. A patient doesn’t just wake up one day with it and have no memory of their past, or be able to function as they once could. It slowly eats away at the patient’s memory until they can’t function at all. My husband was diagnosed in 1995 and refused to acknowledge it. The family wasn’t allowed to call the disease by its true name. To keep him calm we were forced to call it, “advanced brain deterioration.” He was tested by three different neurologists at three different times over the last twelve years. Facts had to be faced – finally.
 When he couldn’t deny the disease any longer he tried different medications, but they all had violent side affects which left him in bed most of the day with an understandable bad attitude. In those days he did typical Alzheimer’s things that most wives would have divorced over if they had not known of the disease. Lucky for him I read everything I could on the disease. He hid money, lied blaming others to cover his own mistakes, suspected and accused family of imaginary things that too often, seemingly caring, outside family or friends would suggest for him to look out for. Often these patients will point most or their entire disruptive attitude towards the one person they trust most not to leave them.
 These patients need to be protected from themselves as well as others that don’t understand the disease. They must stay on a strict diet to keep a clearer mind. For my husband, a sign something is about to go wrong is when he craves hamburgers. This is a disease where everyone has to be careful what is said to the patient. If they get a suggestion that sticks in their minds the caregiver will get the brunt of his attitude. Often this comes in a refusal of taking medications, or to eat healthy foods, even to bathe, or brush their teeth, or hair. Activity becomes a topic of rebellion with no interest in challenging his mind to keep it active.
 In the beginning family and friends came to visit with him. All left telling me the tests weren’t true he was fine and ulterior motives were involved. But the conversation was always about the past which was perfectly clear in his memory. His disease hadn’t progressed that far – yet. When the subject comes to something he doesn’t know or remember he sits back and agrees with the person. He shows interest. He can, and has, been lead to believe what a persuasive person will install in his mind.
I have discovered that his diet has a lot to do with his mental state of memory. He is more confused and has to lie around when his sugar is high. It is believed that high sugar levels or levels that roller coaster lead to Type III diabetes. We were told it is commonly known as “diabetes of the brain.” To date, little is known about this type of diabetes.
 Short term memory get hits first with the inability to remember little things, or words they used every day. This is a time when charades becomes helpful. Names become lost to patients of Alzheimer’s, along with the ability to do simple things, or the desire to do things that brought them pleasure. Everything needs to be confirmed again the next day or even later that day. Most things are new to them and often excite the patient enough to insist everyone around them know it, too.
 All of this hits before the nursing home, diapers and a catatonic stage of existence.
 One sad point to be made here is all the symptoms of Alzheimer’s echo the same symptoms of water on the brain, right down to the shuffling of feet in walking. If multiple tests are done to correctly diagnose the problem a person can develop brain damage and die when surgery could have save their life and put them back into society as a functioning human being. With my husband we will never know because outsiders talked him out of having the test for water on the brain. He tried too hard to cover his illness and ate what the co-workers ate at lunch and he didn’t listen to his doctors in the beginning when events could have changed the outcome.

Mrs. Frances Grimn...a wonderful woman, who is very much loved and has alzheimers.....

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Judy Baker Bechtle

Betty I'm sure you are trying to protect us but my work needs my by line attached. If you can please correct this. By now everyone knows Charles has this terrible disease. Even he is ok with admiting he has it. We are controling it as best ...as we can with high protein and fresh fruits and steamed veggies. I feel so sorry for this lady and more so for her family that has to watch the beautiful person she was in healthier days struggle with all that will come. It is heart breaking and aggravating for the family but if everyone can learn to laugh and make jokes about this it really does help everyone involved. Sadly we had to learn this the hard way. This stops any embarrassing moments for the patient. It leaves them their reself respect. And that is important. Thank you for helping to spread the word about Alzheimers... Judy BechtleSee More

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And now the article I wrote and posted on my blog page…

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s: the word alone is enough to send chills through family members. It came to our attention last week how even in today’s society most people don’t know much about this disease. Unfortunately my family knows first hand how it destroys a person and disrupts the peace in the family. A patient doesn’t just wake up one day with it and have no memory of their past, or be able to function as they once could. It slowly eats away at the patient’s memory until they can’t function at all. My husband was diagnosed in 1995 and refused to acknowledge it. The family wasn’t allowed to call the disease by its true name. To keep him calm we were forced to call it, “advanced brain deterioration.” He was tested by three different neurologists at three different times over the last twelve years. Facts had to be faced – finally.

When he couldn’t deny the disease any longer he tried different medications, but they all had violent side affects which left him in bed most of the day with an understandable bad attitude. In those days he did typical Alzheimer’s things that most wives would have divorced over if they had not known of the disease. Lucky for him I read everything I could on the disease. He hid money, lied blaming others to cover his own mistakes, suspected and accused family of imaginary things that too often, seemingly caring, outside family or friends would suggest for him to look out for. Often these patients will point most or their entire disruptive attitude towards the one person they trust most not to leave them.

These patients need to be protected from themselves as well as others that don’t understand the disease. They must stay on a strict diet to keep a clearer mind. For my husband, a sign something is about to go wrong is when he craves hamburgers. This is a disease where everyone has to be careful what is said to the patient. If they get a suggestion that sticks in their minds the caregiver will get the brunt of his attitude. Often this comes in a refusal of taking medications, or to eat healthy foods, even to bathe, or brush their teeth, or hair. Activity becomes a topic of rebellion with no interest in challenging his mind to keep it active.

In the beginning family and friends came to visit with him. All left telling me the tests weren’t true he was fine and ulterior motives were involved. But the conversation was always about the past which was perfectly clear in his memory. His disease hadn’t progressed that far – yet. When the subject comes to something he doesn’t know or remember he sits back and agrees with the person. He shows interest. He can, and has, been lead to believe what a persuasive person will install in his mind. 

I have discovered that his diet has a lot to do with his mental state of memory. He is more confused and has to lie around when his sugar is high. It is believed that high sugar levels or levels that roller coaster lead to Type III diabetes. We were told it is commonly known as “diabetes of the brain.” To date, little is known about this type of diabetes.

Short term memory get hits first with the inability to remember little things, or words they used every day. This is a time when charades becomes helpful. Names become lost to patients of Alzheimer’s, along with the ability to do simple things, or the desire to do things that brought them pleasure. Everything needs to be confirmed again the next day or even later that day. Most things are new to them and often excite the patient enough to insist everyone around them know it, too.

All of this hits before the nursing home, diapers and a catatonic stage of existence.      

One sad point to be made here is all the symptoms of Alzheimer’s echo the same symptoms of water on the brain, right down to the shuffling of feet in walking. If multiple tests are done to correctly diagnose the problem a person can develop brain damage and die when surgery could have save their life and put them back into society as a functioning human being. With my husband we will never know because outsiders talked him out of having the test for water on the brain. He tried too hard to cover his illness and ate what the co-workers ate at lunch and he didn’t listen to his doctors in the beginning when events could have changed the outcome.  

Posted by Judy at 10:42 AM 0 comments

Freedom of Speech or Plagiarism?

Freedom of Speech or Plagiarism

By Judy Bechtle

This piece is copyrighted by law.

Where does the fine line divide? Or does it divide? Is it two completely differently things?

It came to my attention this week that some really don’t have a clue to what either means. Or for that matter the results that can be racked up in court from crossing the two.

In the First Amendment Congress gave us the right of free speech. The citizens of the U.S.A. had it long before Congress laid ink to parchment, however, but that is as long as you were white. That has changed and now everyone has rights to the First Amendment. Free speech is the right to say what we choose, but not the right to defame another’s reputation, or to expose a minor child to filthy words or pictures among other things you simply can not say. In the U.S.A. we are permitted to speak our thoughts concerning the government’s actions, locally and around the country. This is not so in many other countries. People can call others nasty names and tell any lie they want and get away with it as long as it does not defame their character. That is Freedom of Speech.

Plagiarism is not free speech. Plagiarism is taking, or hijacking as in the case of taking it from the Internet, and claiming it as your writing or work. This is against the law and can result with a date in court in front of a judge. In this case leave your jewels at home and/or bring your checkbook. You won’t be walking out as you came in. Plagiarists come in all shapes and sizes and ages. They range from a stressed out school kid that didn’t want, or have time to do a report, to a person that was incapable of writing an intelligent article on their own, to an old aged person that might be trying to do the right thing but doesn’t have an ability to so much as write a letter. So these people steal the work of others and claim it as their own. Does having good intentions make it right? No. Plagiarism is still stealing the same as if they removed jewelry from a store. Plagiarism of the written word or a created art piece falls under the same law. It is stealing. Punishable in a court of law.   

There is no fine line between Freedom of Speech and Plagiarism. It doesn't divide and they are totally different. One is semi legal and the other is completely illegal.

Notice of Copyright laws here...

Please be aware that all copyright laws prevail on this and any of my Internet and blog pages or facebook pages. If you like my creations and my article writings, I thank you very much. Whoever, don't think you can: use - borrow - or plagiarize my work or any of it without face a judge in court. And I WILL find out.

Judy Bechtle
 

Alzheimer's Patients

Alzheimer’s Patients

By Judy Bechtle

In today’s world we are seeing more and more people developing this terrible disease. The roads that are being claimed to lead into this disease are many. Some I question. But I am not a medical doctor and never have claimed to be something I am not. I am a writer with first hand knowledge of this disgusting disease. No, I don’t have it, but my husband of forty-four years does have it.

We have gone through the treatments that made him sicker than sick. Yes, that can happen – we have seen him so sick not even the doctors understand why he is still alive.

When a person develops this disease at first they don’t want it told to the world. They have heard the horrors of what they will look like and what will become of them. They have heard the rumors and most likely read the articles published about what they will go through in the days ahead.

For our family we have protected my husband. We never have current pictures of him for him to see. We have the house displayed with pictures of how he was when he was healthy and smiling. We show pictures of him with the blue twinkle in his eyes and his bright smile. I guarantee he doesn’t look like that now. I, nor any of his family, would ever insult him, or degrade him, by allowing his present day appearance to appear in public. You might think this is all for the family. It isn’t. It’s all for his currant mental health.

An Alzheimer’s patient needs to feel they are the same person and not some decrepit excuse of what they once were. We would never exploit his illness and how it changed his appearance for a pat on the back that it happened to someone we know. I don’t understand people that do this sort of publishing of this disease. It is WRONG to degrade a person for self acknowledgement in the name of medical science or caring.

Persons of this terrible disease NEED to believe with all they have that they are still the same person as they once were, but now have restrictions. They need to go out in public on good days. We have good and bad days with my husband. On good days visitors are allowed, we go out in public. On bad days – don’t waste the gas – we won’t allow you in the house. We won’t allow anyone to go away and report on how “bad” he looks.

That is just on appearances, and then there are other factors. A person with Alzheimer’s disease walks differently and forgets often. It is not nice to parade these patients around in public or promote their lack of abilities to the world. Leave these once productive and beautiful people some dignity! They embarrass easily and understand when they call something different than it is. They still have feelings. They can and will become withdrawn – and this is the very worse thing that can be allowed to happen. They need to know they are still part of the family. We often ask my husband’s advice and listen to his opinion on things. We often give him certain things to fix because he used to be our fixer.

Is living with an Alzheimer person easy? Hell no. Ask my family. You can’t imagine how many times we have dried tears that he never saw. It is harder than living with a cancer or any other disease ridden patient with a day to day expectancy. It is heart breaking to see what was once a vibrant, intelligent person becomes what will of them. But it is just as heart breaking to see their pictures plastered on the Internet so someone can get a pat on the back as a caring person. Alzheimer’s is a disease that doesn’t take a person’s life it slowly steals it along with any dignity they can hold on to. The body shuts down over time until vital organs no longer understand how to work. And then they pass over. So please don’t rob these victims of any remaining self respect they have in the name of “doing moral goodness.” This is one time a picture is not worth a thousand words. It is pure and simple selfishness meanness on the part of the person exploiting the victim. Would you want YOUR Alzheimer’s face plastered on the Internet? I wouldn’t and we refuse to allow one of our family members to be insulted or ridiculed like that. If you truly care - then spend time with them talking of the past and how much fun she had. Laugh at their forgetfulness. Ask to borrow his Alzheimer before answering the phone or going to a meeting, but laugh. Make them laugh. DO NOT make them feel embarrassed or a freak of nature.

If you want to help fight this disease then donate time and money to research a cure. Get a job in the medical profession as we all are in order to help any way we can. This disease affects other parts of the body and can be filed under Alzheimer. You are helping by just volunteering on blood drives or in hospitals where ever they need help.

OMG I was plagiarized AGAIN!

By: Judy Bechtle

Last night I received an email that knocked me back eleven years. Someone “borrowed” one of my articles on my blog - http://innerstrength-judy.blogspot.com/. At first I didn’t mind this person using my article, considering the nature of this particular article, but I was upset that I was not asked before hand. I did ask to see how and where it was used. To my horror this person plagiarized my work. She used my full article and changed the title and then gave herself the By: line. This is plain and simple PLAGIARIZIM. I have asked for the By: line to be changed, but that hasn’t happened.

In case you don’t know the rules and moral code of the writing and publishing industry (and I will give her that much credit of not knowing,) let me explain it in simple words. When you take someone else’s writing, or work and put your name on it – you plagiarized their work. The same for claiming you wrote something you DID NOT write. That is against the law! You can be drug into court and prosecuted. It took my time and creativeness to create the article of what I am living through with my husband.

I say that it knocked me back eleven years because I had one of my best manuscripts plagiarized by my critique partner, and college friend, because she knew what it would bring in book store sales. Yes, we are no longer friends. I lost my new agent and the contract and couldn’t do a damn thing about it because at that time my husband had his first of many heart episodes. He wasn’t expected to survive more than six weeks on the first attack. I was the agency’s new rising star – in their words. I had to step back and do nothing against the critique partner’s claim or let my husband die. My lawyers said, “give it time and do what you need to do for now. You will write another novel and then it will prove the first was yours.” So, now I am being told by this person, “I tried to get it off but it was there again so it will just have to be there.” I bet my lawyers can get it off very soon! If you want to use someone’s work then DO NOT change the title or anything in the piece. DO NOT leave out their By: line that goes right under their title. By not doing these simple things you are stealing and may be the worse type of person out here in a writer’s opinion.

IF you choose to use a writer’s work then have the decency to ask first. Get permission. Then give the writer a copy and a link to where and how it is being used. And for God’s sake don’t put your damn name on it anywhere. Once again that is plagiarism.

Writers use the blogs and internet to advertise their work. We get paying jobs that way – sometimes. It is easier, faster, and cheaper, and covers a larger community than sending by the postal service. Yes, it is a compliment to have someone ask for your written piece but we usually also get paid cash for those pieces. And we get a By: Line with our name on it. I didn’t ask for any compensation because I don’t feel there is enough known about Alzheimer’s and it is such a horrible disease that rips the dignity from the person suffering not to leave out the heart ach of having to explain who everyone is and those we people that come are our kids and grandchildren and remind him of their names and birth dates. And so much more.