Richard Lovison wrote:
> Bill Pearce wrote:
>
>> Give me the choice, and I'll admit none of us like the options, I'll take
>> Alzheimers. At least my mother was in a fantasy world for the last five or
>> so years of her life. My father is, to put it bluntly, miserable. He handles
>> things about as well as anyone, but every day, he is reminded about the
>> miserable nature of the rest of his life.
> Bill,
>
> I'm not sure there is one choice that's better than the other. As my
> Dentist put it as he was explaining the surgery he would soon need,
> "growing old isn't for the faint of heart."
>
> My brother's wife was diagnosed with Alzheimers in her early 50's and at
> age 55 she doesn't seem to be content being lost at times in a fantasy
> world. Just the opposite... when she gets disorientated she gets
> aggravated and upset. She fears having someone in the home other than
> my brother caring for her and fears being institutionalized. It seems
> to be a stressful situation for all involved including the children.
>
> Richard
As I'm becoming more and more familiar with it, with my mother-in-law, I think
the worst of the deterioration is short term memory loss.
Without a working/functional short term memory, you can't read a book,
sometimes not even read a newspaper.
You find it increasingly difficult just playing cards, because you can't
recall the rules, and don't really know what to DO... My MIL looks at the
cards in her hand with that typical "stare" the clueless get... so she follows
directions without knowing what or why.
So, casual conversation gets increasingly difficult, as in "what do you talk
about?"
Age related dementia [as I experience it] is only different from Alzheimers in
that she recognizes family members at the moment.
Tomorrow, next week, who knows...
Re the fears, yes. That's a sad part of it. The fears don't go away. Probably
increase, as do the multitude of anxieties older folks get.
Then, when you get so that you don't feel you can trust those caretakers
around you, it gets worse yet...
No fun...
keith whaley
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