As dementia progressed further, the experiences of a caretaker, translated…
My seventy-five year-old mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s eight years ago, and, I’m sure, that the trials, can only be understood, by those with elderly with Alzheimer’s and dementia too.
My mother is very capable and able-bodied, nobody thought that there would be a link between her and Alzheimer’s. At first, she’d complained of headaches, and headed to the hospitals for check ups a lot, and would try this med for a month, then that one for a month, until the family thought something was definitely up with her, and, her abnormal behaviors also included forgetting to brush her teeth, bathe herself, becoming agitated very easily, told us that my father was stealing things from her, spaced out a lot, and say hi to her own reflection in the mirror, and seeing the family members who’d died already.
not my picture…
A lot of the abnormalities were mistaken as getting “shocked” by the spirits, and so, a lot of the friends and families would introduce her to head to the temples, until a friend who’s parent was also demented pointed it out to us, then, we’d started taking her to the physical exams, to see if the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s fitted, and recorded down her wayward behaviors, and, in just two months, we’d documented a total of twenty-three behaviors that wasn’t normal, and after the confirmations of diagnosis by the doctor, after she’d gotten evaluated, it was, confirmed, she was, demented.
At the beginning stages of her illness, she’d constantly said she wanted to go home, even as she was at home, she’d wanted to go home. In the heat of July, August, she was outside, ranting on she wanted to go home, the nurse’s aide accompanied her for three, four hours, walking around and about, she couldn’t take it anymore; she’d flagged down a cab, not allowing the nurse’s aide to ride with her in the cab. From before, our house is in Taipei, next to a police subprecinct, and, several times, the cabdriver just, dropped off at the police subprecinct.
We worried that she might get lost, but she would, take the Alzheimer’s bracelet off her wrist; then, we’d prepared a small knapsack, with the names and contact phone numbers posted, and placed some money inside the purses, and had the nurse’s aide make sure she wore it when they go out. There was, the cabdrivers who’d left her on Taipei Bridge, and there were the kind cabdriver, who’d not received any pays, and just, dropped her off at the police subprecinct; she was also lifted by a kindhearted stranger home.
elderly wandering about, not remembering how to get home, photo from online…
For a period of time, my mother became violent, and wouldn’t sleep through the nights, would get up about eight times a night, and, as the sky became light, I’d already, become limp on her couch, and I still needed to get to work in the morning. After she was placed on anti-psychotics, her eyes became hollow, dumbfounded, very far from her original personality, we couldn’t bear with it, and stopped the meds, and, although it’d been, harder on us, but at least, we feel that our mother is still with us.
It’s been, eight years now, we’d gone through forgetting, getting violent, or maybe, it’s how she’s now, older, became less physically fit, mom no longer ranted on how she’d wanted to go home, forgotten her own children too. She’s now, a childish elderly woman, playing with the toys, I’d, taken her hand, took her to the parks for strolls, to the market places to shop for groceries, having no children of my own, my mother is, my elderly child.
This, would be an ideal case, with one of the siblings unmarried and could look after the demented elderly parents, and, this just shows the progression of the illness, how the elderly went from simply not remembering, to having delusions, and becoming physically violent, and yet, there’s NO sure way to map out the progressions of each and every patient diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia, as it’s all different individually.
Life, the Obstacle Course 