Ways to help the demented elderly individuals, live with a good quality of life, after the diagnosis, translated…
My husband who’s elderly, had been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia last July by the N.T.U. Hospital. Followed the advices of the neurologist, taken his medication at home, hired a foreign nurse to help out, life went on, ordinarily.
But, MERS-CoV outbreak occurred, and it’d, messed up everything. My son is a medical staff member, the family was on high alert, and he’d, stayed away, fearing that the virus may come home with him, and told us, to live in our homes, to not go out, to avoid the chances of contraction.
And, I’d worried, that my husband’s stuck at home, lacking socialization, his bodily functions will drop down too quickly, and so, other than wheeling him out to the local parks, I’d, set up this, “Grandpa-Grandson time” for the video calls, the younger and the older generations shared the interactions, using what grandpa was familiar with, poetry, with grandma adding in the jokes, and riddles, to add more fun.
As this process got started, grandpa really took everything seriously, his unagile hands started picking up the pens, writing out the lesson plans, while grandma searched, actively on Mr. Google for the resources.
Every day when “Grandchild-Grandparents Time” came, grandma and grandpa would share the expressions of love with our second and fifth grade grandchildren, reciting the poetry, sometimes by memory, with the words read aloud, the laughter, and during the time, Grandpa gave us a number score, we were, having a grand time.
The evaluation of progress before school started, the grandfather-grandchildren had TEN poems committed to memories, and what’s more was that awhile ago, when I took my husband to get evaluated on the progressions of Alzheimer’s, he’d improved from last year, for instance, the neurologist asked him to write five characters, and he gave the neurologist a twenty-character poem.
The goals of this year was to prevent the deteriorations of his mind, with higher quality of life. And the assessment results, he’d, improved in his cognitive functioning, and, we’re now, waiting for his return checks next week, to hear what the neurologist has to say, and his opinions on the progression of my husband’s dementia. Ahhhhhhhhhh, this must be what the columnist, Madam Wei-Wei spoke of, “living life with that scent of romanticism, in the limitations placed on us!” I suppose.
And so this still just showed, how important it is, to keep socializing with one’s own external environment, because, those once-every three-to-six months’ evaluations doesn’t do anything, you still must keep on getting engaged daily with your external environment, participate in your own lives, to prevent the progression of your own conditions, like this family had done, to help the elderly man to keep his mind sharp, so he didn’t, deteriorate as quickly.