u/SurfHippie

So I made my first batch of applesauce last week using our Honey Crisp apples. The batch turned out fantastic. Today I made my second ever batch using our Winter Banana apples. This experience was far different.

During the cooking process, I used a different pot (stainless steel) with 3/4 cup of water in the bottom, about the same as my first batch which was done in a nonstick pot. Unfortunately, the apples at the bottom badly burned in the bottom of the pot. While I was able to save 5 jars of applesauce which tastes great but clearly smokey. Questions:

1. Anyone else done this before and did you have any issues eating it afterwards? I’m still completing the canning process now and plan to save the jars.

2. Any ideas for other uses of the smokey applesauce? I was debating making some barbecue sauce with part of the batch. Thoughts or recipes appreciated :)

Don’t be too hard on me. It’s bad enough I ruined a pot during the process! Thanks in advance!

First, I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who posts and comments here in this subreddit. Sharing your experiences, successes, and difficulties has been so beneficial to read and learn from. Thank you 🙏 Now it’s time for my story to share in hopes it will help others dealing with this awful, terrible condition. I hate dementia.

My mother has vascular dementia. I’m her son and am now 59. Mom is 87 years old and now lives with my wife and I. My wife is a CNA which is extremely helpful. Mom spends most of her days with me, alone, while my wife is working. We live on the Oregon coast so our time is spent walking beautiful parks, the bay or elk viewing areas. This location has been helpful so far in keeping her spirits up.

Mom’s dementia journey began about 3 years ago. I began noticing memory issues that were beyond her normal forgetfulness. She noticed them as well and her primary care physician recommended testing at a local Neuropsychological Clinic. After her initial consultation and tests, which brought her to tears because she felt “so stupid”, she was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. A week after that diagnosis, she found out she needed a total knee replacement. The timing was important.

The day mom went into surgery for the knee replacement, my daughter took her to check in. I arrived late after she was prepped and they had changed from the agreed upon spinal anesthesia to general. This was due in part to a heart murmur she’s had since childhood. When she awoke from general anesthesia, her memory and confusion were noticeably worse. It’s only gotten worse since then. I still beat myself up a bit for not being there to fight for her against that decision but realize that ultimately we were headed down this road anyhow. It just sped things up.

Mom lived in her own home and one of my daughters was able to move in with her to help with her care as she worked remotely. This was a great help as I live 90 minutes away from her place. I drove over 3 days a week while working remotely myself and was able to get her to rehab and therapy for the knee and then took her to my home over the weekend. This worked for a while before moms started leaving the home and hopping into cars with neighbors for shopping trips without telling either of us. Last October, this arrangement became too challenging and mom moved in with my wife and I. My daughter moved out and moms home now sits vacant. We’re able to keep it for now as we may need to move back there if mom ends up injured or in a wheelchair as it is more ADA compliant than our home.

Things have been going well until recently when we noticed a drop in mom’s diastolic blood pressure. Testing revealed narrowing of the vessels around the heart and surgical intervention with her condition and age has been ruled out.

About a month ago my wife began assisting mom with her showers as we noticed hygiene issues that resulted in frequent illnesses. Assisted showers have been terrible for mom. She frequently speaks of the lack of privacy, doesn’t understand where she lives, and has now forgotten her age. She can have a very good day but when it comes to bath time, all hell breaks lose and she treats my wife horribly, usually going to bed angry. We’re still changing little things here and there trying to find the right balance that keeps her calm, but so far haven’t found something that works. Maybe we won’t, but we’re not done trying :)

We return to her newest primary care physician this week to discuss the addition of antidepressants to her routine. Hopefully this will help with her recent declines and general unhappiness, as well as her continued lack of sleep (she’s up every 15-30 minutes from 10:30pm to 3am “to pee”, every night, without fail). Trial medications and changes in have been unable to break this habit.

This is where we are at this moment in time. The struggle continues but I’m happy to be here for mom. I enjoy reading and learning from your posts. I sincerely wish you all the best with your loved ones as we all navigate life with this crappy condition. Take care of yourselves ❤️