ALZHEIMER'S BLOGGING:

Yesterday at work it broke my heart as I was called for a 91 year old female whose blood pressure was falling 88/52. As we got to the nursing home they told me they took her blood pressure twice in an hour and her blood pressure kept falling. We found this frail, weak women lying in bed. I noticed something dark around her lips. I took a cloth and wet it, and dabbed it to her lips to see it was crusty and pussy. I was standing on her right side and asked her when was the last time she ate a meal. She just looked at me curiously and kept saying "what". We carefully sheet lifted her to our gurney and took her vitals. Now I was standing on the left side of her. I already kind of put her off to being with dementia, but I decided to ask a couple of other questions. To my surprise she told me her age, where she lived, even her social security number. We were relieved to see that her blood pressure was not low like I was told, but she was dehydrated, weak and frail. I decided to read her paper work and low and behold, this lovely lady was deaf in her right ear.

This brought me to a memory of my father in law. We had a party for him with a lot of his relatives. He was so cute, smiling, and saying hello to every one. One of his favorite things to say when you ask him, how he is feeling is, 'If I was feeling any better there would be two of me.' The next day my sister called me and said she thought that there was nothing wrong with my father in law. She said that he knew who she was. Very carefully I asked her if he ever called her by her first name. "No," she replied. "But we talked about the times when we met for lunch." I asked her if she brought it up or if he did. "Well I did," she answered." But he said he remembered." I made her think about the conversation and finally she agreed that all he did was agree with her.

That is one of the frustrating things about Alzheimer's. The person who has it can put on an act, and if you don't know better, you won't see what is wrong. One of the first things I did when I moved into my father in laws house was really talk to him and see what he knew and did not know. I asked him simple questions and I found out that he did know his name and his birthday. But he had no idea how old he was, had no idea who I was, only remembered two of his three children's names, and he did not know that we were in his house. I took out a photo album that I had made for my father and mother in law about four years earlier and we went through it. He did not recognize the people in the album and would ask me who they were. Although a couple of times he surprised me and recognized his wife. But than he asked me where she was. I had to explain to him that she already passed away. Than he asked me if they were happy together.

Alzheimer's stole his mind from him. It took his identity away. The man I once knew was gone. It is not fair. It is such a terrible disease. I do hope that we can find a cure soon. Alzheimer's starts with impaired memory, to impaired thoughts and speech, and finally to complete helplessness. Nerve cells die to areas of the brain that are vital to memory, and other mental abilities. The connections to the nerve cells are disrupted which affect memory, judgement and thinking.

I just wanted to share this with you. If you are going through something like this I want you to know that you are not alone. If you need to vent, ask questions or just want to talk, write me. I will try to help or just be a good listener. Remember life is a gift and family is very important.

Sincerely,
Marie Fostino
Alzheimer's A Caretakers Journal
Seaboard Press an Imprint of James A Rock Pub., Co
www.mariefostino.com