As shared in my prior post, mom went into the memory care facility in September of 2017. For the first three months, things went pretty well. Visits were friendly and family nights were fun with entertainment and a chance for everyone to interact. Then the problems started happening. She fell from a sitting position (assume
Continuing the experiences with my mom, there is a critical and emotional decision to be made. When is it time for her to move to a care facility? We have been steadily increasing the in-home care from a couple hours per day to 13 hours per day .. essentially all waking hours. With that
I am not a doctor and have no medical background so information I am sharing here is simply information I’ve found through research. That research may be flawed. I encourage you to do your own research and to consult medical professionals for your specific needs. The unfortunate reality for Alzheimer’s is that there is no
The memory challenged suffer considerably and have a harder time achieving day-to-day happiness because they are less capable and more dependent than they used to be. But they are not the only victims. As caregivers, we struggle with balancing our lives with the care of our loved ones. We balance the time we commit to
As seniors go through the stages of Dementia, the emotions change. Based on my experiences with my mom and discussions with other caregivers, this is heavily influenced by their personality, values and principles. The disease tends to exaggerate some of the personality traits. This can be good and bad. In the case of my mom,
For many seniors (including my mother), hearing loss is common. Adding hearing loss to memory loss further complicates care. Hearing Aids For some, the easy answer is hearing aids but that becomes problematic as Alzheimer’s or other forms of Dementia worsen. Early on in the disease, we worked with mom to convince her to get
We are fortunate that my mother does not have a lot of medications to take but between two prescriptions and supplements, there are a few. In the early days of the disease, we were able to get by with a simple list that looked like this: The two prescription meds started with easy-open bottles that
In the case of my mother, she spends between 10-12 hours alone each day. She spends most of that time watching old DVDs of Roy Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood, Doris Day … you get the picture. She watches these movies on an old computer. For whatever reason, she will not use a TV