This must be the most frightening disease ever! I have now seen two family members go through it and honestly I think I'd rather have cancer. At least with cancer if it is caught soon enough, you have a chance to regain quality of life. Alzheimer's, on the other hand, has no cure, just a sometimes slow descent into a kind of madness where not only do you not know those around you but you lose yourself too. My 89 year old aunt has been showing signs of this horrid disease for the last three years, can't remember where she leaves things, can't understand how to write checks, goes through vicious mood swings, can't remember a conversation from ten minutes ago but can recall things she and her sister did as children. It is frustrating for both her and me as she lives with me and my family. I have tried to get her to a doctor who will be willing to find out if this is what is going on or if there is some other cause of her symptoms but she prefers to bury her head in the sand and deny what is happening to her. Denial that is hurting both of us as she isn't getting medication that could lessen her symptoms and I feel that I have already lost her. She isn't the person she once was. While she has always been somewhat self-centered, she used to care about others. Now she says friends are only good to be used when you want something done and why should she care about doing anything for them? If I am watching a movie and she doesn't like it, she won't ask if I am watching it, just demands that I change the channel.
I keep reading up on the subject, but like any disease, it affects everyone differently and so far I find little that fits her, other than the basic symptoms. The advice on how to deal just doesn't work for her. One piece of advice is that when the patient is agitated to try to talk calmy and take them to a "happy place" from their past, Unfortunately, I don't think she has any happy places to go to and any attempt to calm her generally results in her getting more agitated and she won't allow me to walk away. If anyone has dealt with this and has alternative advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
Life happens and sometimes it just sucks. While watching her deteriorate mentally and physically, my father-in-law is in stage cancer with less and less time left with us. But I have blessings left to count, a loving and supporting husband and 3 sons I wouldn't trade for anything
