The most horrendous illness! (Senile Dementia / Alzheimer)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	Senile Dementia / Alzheimer
Date:	31/10/06 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Having to watch someone dear to you suffer in this way!

My mother had 'Multi Infarct' Dementia, and had it a total of 8 years (from diagnosis), but probably had it for many years before it was confirmed. It started off her forgetting simple things, but being able to remember years gone by, but not being able to tell you what she did minutes beforehand. She started having a few black outs, which no one seemed to have been able to diagnose.
Multi Infarct is tiny little assaults on the brain, and the Dementia goes in a step like fashion, opposed to Alzheimers which deteriorates in a smooth slow downward slope. The outcome is the same though. The step like Dementia my Mother had meant that she could go along at a stable level for awhile, then when she had another little assault on the brain (most times not even noticeable to others), it would plummet her downwards for a while, then she would pick up a little, till the next assault! Through the years she recovered less and less from these assaults, therefore, the brain just takes one too many of these attacks, and eventually results in death. I think my Mother went too far with her desease, and lasted much longer than even the Doctors forecast,as she was also Registered Blind, and this can make the illness go that bit faster, as they do not have their eyesight to try and keep some sort of memory going. My Mother proved all their theories wrong!

She eventually had severe behaviour problems and could get quite violent at times, and of course, the classic symptoms of accusing people of stealing from her, hiding things, wandering away, losing her inhabitions.....the list is endless!
The sad thing was, before she was admitted to a Nursing Home, I cared for my Mother for 3years, and she would cry after doing something terrible (to me, or my Father), knowing she had done something awful, but couldn't remember what. So at that time, her brain was still in conflict with the desease, and she could have lucid moments too, which made her know something was very wrong, but couldn't remember anything that had passed in her 'bad' moments. This caused so much distress and depression.

She suffered from dillusions & illusions. It was very frightening for her, and all the family, when she suffered these, as her brain was telling her these things were happening, and us trying to convince her they were NOT, was a fruitless task, so we just had to sit with her and hug her till it was over! She did very strange things like, get down on her knees on the carpet to look for things that obviously were not there! Turn on the gas and not light it ......many things that started to get dangerous for her and others.

It is a horrendous illness and to have to see your own Mother go through all this, is very hard to bear!

We had a terrific GP and a good psychiatric nurse who supported me all the way through, but the medical profession stepped in when it got just too much to deal with. They admitted her to a Nursing Home, where she spent 2 years there, until they were no longer able to cope with her.

My Mother eventually ended up in a psychiatric hospital, which was heart breaking for all our family. She no longer knew anyone, she was doubly incontinent, and was really just a vegetable the last 2 years of her life, She had forgotten to talk, walk, eat, control her bodily functions, and she just sat in a chair day in and day out, making groaning noises.

If her heart hadn't been so strong, she should have passed away much quicker than when she did.

Her final few days, I sat at her bedside, and I looked at a woman who started off as a fairly well built woman, who was now down to less than 70 pounds, and I thought about how intelligent she had been, quite a strong headed person, and a woman who loved her Grandchildren more than life itself, and would certainly not have wanted her beloved Grandchildren to see her like that...........and I wonder why does anyone let them go through this horrendous, vicious illness. We put animals to sleep so they do not suffer!

There are alot of discussions about whether they are aware of what is happening to them and do they in fact suffer or not, but how would we know, when they are unable to tell us anything?

I know that there are many experiments on the go to try and stop this progressive illness, and it must be the hardest illness to investigate, as who has ever asked a Dementia sufferer in the late stages what they are going through? It is impossible to know what is really happening!

I hope they find a cure soon, as people are living alot older these days, therefore we are seeing many more people getting struck down with Dementia. We have a shortage of Nursing Homes and places to accomodate our older generation with this awful illness, where once upon a time there were fewer cases and the Residential homes were for people who wanted to be in them to retire in a nice environment, but now there are more Dementia sufferers taking these places, as there are not enough Nursing homes where they really should be, with qualified staff!

Summary: This must be the cruellest illness in the World