No not again! (My Experience of Alzheimer's Disease)

Member Name: diane60uk

Product:	My Experience of Alzheimer's Disease
Date:	30/01/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: NONE

Disadvantages: SO VERY CRUEL

Its a fact, you hear of some dreadful illness, and dismiss it thinking its the sort of thing which happens to other people. I heard a discussion one day on the t.v about alzheimers disease, and like most, didn, t give it a second thought, it was just too awful to contemplate,
Well it has happened to my family, not once but twice,and I would like to tell you from the laymans point of view how it has affected us.

My Aunt Jean, a very talented and gifted artist, loving Mother of four, with a great sense of humour, and fun, who doted on her grandchildren, sadly was to seccumb to this incurable living hell.

At first, it was hardly noticeable, true, she was repeating herself an awful lot, and at times it was like a record because each time I spoke to her she would tell me the same thing over and over again.
She also became addicted to scratch cards, and would spend any money she could find on them, she sometimes believed she had won big money and on one occasion actually started wrecking the newsagents shop in the village where she lived, as it happened being a small village the family were known, and my uncle was sent for to calm the situation down. Trouble was at every opportunity as soon as she could get out the house, she would be back buying more, the shop really should have stopped taking her money and let someone know, but they didn,t.

She started getting onto the little village bus, and disappearing, she was found miles away, wandering around the seaside resort, a place she uses to go to buy her art supplies. It soon became obvious that she must be watched at all times, as we didnt know what she might do next.

In time she forgot how to paint and draw, all her talent was lost, she couldn,t write her own name. she had forgotten how to wash and dress herself, and her husband had to do almost everything for her.

The saddest part of all this was her loss of speech, and recognition of any one of her family. she didn,t even give he grandchildren a second glance, and she had loved them so much, she had taught them so much too and to witness this was heartbreaking.

Eventually it became apparent Uncle was suffering, although he refused adamantly to have his wife put into residential care, but in the end it just had to be.

Whilst Aunt Jean was blissfully oblivious to the heartache her condition was causing us all, she settled in without a bit of bother, and though we visited on a regular basis she never knew who we were.

Sadly the home she was in had to close, and she was moved, she hadnt been there very long when she was found with some terrible facial injuries, and bruising to her body, she had been left to sleep on a sofa which was barely big enough for her to stretch her legs, and a doctor hadnt been called to look at her so the family contacted the hospital and had her admitted. She was in a pitifull state, the nursing staff were wonderful and gave my poor Aunt their tender loving care, and she was treated with dignity as she should have been.
Auntie passed away, very peacefully a couple of weeks later, and at this point her family took lagal proceedings against the care home.
Due to the fact, that there wasnt a witness, to testify just what had happened, the staff stated another client had inflicted her injuries, we had no way of proving otherwise, some recommendations were introduced, but it was too late for Jean.

Recently, my Mother, was diagnosed with vascular dementia, and has deteriorated so rapidly, we can,t believe its happening. I know its not the same my Aunts, as its presented a different set of symptoms.

My Mother, has for some time repeated things that happened years ago, and we just accepted this, however, after an accident at home last April when she shattered her heel after falling from a stool, we saw a marked difference in her moods, confussion, and repetiveness, she began to be be very suspicious, of everything, and accused us of doing nasty things, she started locking her door, and not answering her phone to anyone, we knew she couldnt get very far on her own due to her injury, but she needed food bringing in and her home needed cleaning.

It became apparent, we needed help from the care agencies and social services, again Mother was very reluctant to let them in, she got aggressive and angry if it was suggested she needed help she refused everything that was offered to her, and just couldn,t see how much she really needed it, and was in complete denial

We persevered with her with great difficulty, we tried to get her out , if we managed it she forgot she had been anywhere, we had managed to get carers three times a day, 7 days a week, and her CPN managed to get her a place in a day centre once a week, we had also been lucky enough for her to be prescribed Aricept, and her mood gradually changed.

The main problems now were, her not wanting to wash and change, thinking all the time that she had already done it, she sometimes missed meals as she also thought she already eaten. Our main worry was her chain smoking, as she finished one cigarette she was lighting another, snd had burnt holes through her clothing she even set her cushion on fire.

Last week, thankfully a member of the family was with her, she collapsed and was rushed to hospital, it is not known yet what happened but it may have been an abnormal heart rhythm, it was thought at first she had suffered a mini stroke, as this can occur with vascular dementia but a scan proved otherwise.

Why doesn,t someone take her in I can hear you say, well I myself have health issues,with heart problems and have some one to care for me , my siblings also have arthritis and heart trouble, so its not possible at all.

We had a meeting in her "best interests" with the mental health team who felt it might be better for her to go into nursing care, this saddens us deeply, we have decided to have her home for another month, just to see if the aricept will make a difference, and after that we will review the situation.

Finding a good care home, will be a priority, we owe our poor mum that. she worked hard for us, and has always been there when we needed her,

Life can be so very cruel, this dreadful disease takes your personality , your identity and robs you of your mind

My big worry is that she doesn,t end her days as poor Jean did.

Summary: please find a cure