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Alzheimer's Care - The Long GoodbyeRonald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and his wife, Nancy, said of it that it was ‘The Long Goodbye’. What an appropriate way to put it, as Alzheimer’s care, is what I’m facing with my own father. Do I leave him where he is? Would he be better off in a Nursing Facility specializing in Alzheimer’s care? I don’t know, but what I do know is that each time I see him and say goodbye, will he know me who I am the next time I see him. The sadness of seeing someone one loves, someone who was honorary, and funny, loving, supportive, and was always there for me, is beyond description. He is slipping away beyond my reach, to some netherworld between life and death, to a place, that prohibits him from remembering, knowing, and understanding, how much I love him. This is Alzheimer's. This is my father, and I hate what this illness, this form of dementia has done to him, is doing to him. What is it, what is Alzheimer’s disease? Nobody seems to know, except that it regularly affects anywhere between five to eight percent of men and women over the age of 65 and an astounding 25 and 50 percent of men and women over the age of 80. Some believe that Alzheimer's is brought on by mini-strokes or other problems that can dramatically constrict the blood vessels in the brain, thus preventing necessary oxygen from accessing the brain. Others say that there is a connection between some genes and the disease. Those are two theories, there are many others, take your pick, in the long run the theories don’t make a bit of difference. In the long run, even the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s evades detection as there is no single test to identify it until an autopsy is performed. Until then Alzheimer’s hides, masquerades, pretends; the symptoms could be depression, nutritional deficiencies, adverse drug interactions, or metabolic changes. Not until the symptoms have advanced to such a point that a comprehensive exam, including neurological and mental status assessments, will allow a doctor to rule out everything else that displays the same set of symptoms. That then is the day that one begins to think about Alzheimer’s care. In the beginning the symptoms are subtle: Subtle symptoms that progress slowly over a period of anywhere from three to twenty years. One day they forget where they put their keys, and so what, I’ve done that. Another day they’re agitated for no apparent reason, but the next day they’re fine. Gradually the memory loss becomes more apparent, but even then, memory loss is not that uncommon in the normal aging process or when one is under stress. . But then comes the decline in the ability to perform routine tasks, the loss of language skills, impaired judgment, and the marked personality changes. And there’s one more thing, it’s in the eyes, a haunted look that says they’re aware that they are losing their sense of self. It was never my intention to make this into such a personal article on Alzheimer’s care, but it is my father who is caught in the grip of this disease and along with him I am also caught |