I don 't know if you have ever been close to an Alzheimer 's patient but it 's confusing. It 's scary. It 's sad. It 's a slow, painful way to leave for everyone involved. You say goodbye long before the body leaves and your new normal becomes seeing someone you love look at your face with a certain empty look that 's hard to explain. There 's no longer the fire and life in their eyes that you once used to see. There is however, moments of clarity. In the midst of the confusion, you see a small light in their eyes for a few minutes. They remember you. They love you. You get them back for that few minutes. It all too soon silently slips away and the light disappears followed by the question "Who are you?". You smile back and explain and every …show more content…
The second hardest thing I 've ever had to do was sing the words I used to sing to her 10 minutes after she went to her forever home. "Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan and what did I see coming for to carry me home. A band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home". I lost a piece of me that day and I haven 't been the same since. I stopped writing, I stopped loving music, and I stopped having a reason to wake up in the morning, and the worst of all, I stopped seeking Jesus. We were still friends but it was more of Him reaching out for me and me saying "Sorry I 'm busy" Sorry I 'm busy grieving. Sorry I 'm busy being sick. Sorry I 'm being busy living life without You. The funny thing is that I wasn 't really living life at all. I was surviving. I promise surviving and living aren 't the same thing and one is detrimental to your …show more content…
Well I figured out Jesus is my moment of clarity. He 's the moment of clarity I dwell on. I still fight off bad days and angry thoughts but I have moments of clarity and that 's a start. I 've discovered that for me personally, my artistry and faith are one in the same. I used to fear my passions and where they might lead me but my grandmother once told me that I wasn 't allowed to let fear keep me from doing what I was supposed to be doing. That rings through my head every day. The presence of fear and lack of faith causes my art and passion to suffer. So I declare that I cling to my clarity and I will continue to cling to my clarity because sometimes I feel like an Alzheimer 's patient. I get confused and I stutter and I forget who and what I love. Luckily, I have people to remind me and take care of me and for that I am forever thankful. Thank you to the people that loved me and continue to love me through this. Thank you for believing in me when I didn 't believe in myself. Thank you for being part of my clarity and may the road rise to meet
Pah-Lavan, Z. (2006). Alzheimer's disease: the road to oblivion. Journal of Community Nursing, 20(5), 4. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
From watching video one “Gladys Wilson and Naomi Feil”, I learned a few things, for example there is more than one way to communicated with and elder who has lost their ability to communicate with words. From the link of “Alzheimer’s Foundation of America” under the category of symptoms Aphasia which is inability to communicated. The older people grow the more health issues they grow as well, which may lead them to feel lonely, and afraid. From video one Naomi Feil taught me to understand that by being with an elder and communicating more often can reduce their fear and depression. Having friends and family or even volunteer’s spend a few minutes or hour of their time can be live changing to an elder.
Dementia is the loss of a person’s mental skills from their daily routines. The symptoms of dementia could easily be over looked, they include forgetting things, daily routines are hard to complete, misplacing things, depression, aggravation and aggression, emotion are high, even feeling like someone is a threat to their life (Web MD,2012). Caring for someone with dementia can be difficult if with resources like healthcare, living facilities, nursing homes and medicine is involved, but sometimes healthcare and facilities do not provide the proper care. This disease is very common in the elderly community past the age of sixty-five. Finding out that a loved
Caring for someone with Alzheimer can be an arduous task. It can be overwhelming especially if you have minimal knowledge about the disease. Alzheimer is the most common form of dementia and it has been accounted for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Although this is not a normal part of aging, it commonly affects those who are 65 years of age and older. In some cases, it can have an early onset for as early as 40 to 50 years old. Alzheimer symptoms differ depending on its stages, which can worsen over time. This includes, absent-mindedness, confusion in situations outside the norm, speech impairment, difficulty in retaining information, loss of self-awareness, and debilitating cognitive deficit. Alzheimer has no known cure and treatments are primarily focused on slowing its progression. Providing care for a person with Alzheimer’s requires patience, understanding, and continuous effort. Consider these practical tips that can help in providing the utmost care for people suffering with Alzheimer.
Alzheimer’s disease was found more than a century ago but still there is little known and understood about the disease. AD attacks the medial temporal lobes which interferes with memory and the ability to reason and pay attention. (Wierenga and Bondi, 2011). People with AD also have increased atrophy of brain tissue and the brain is clogged with neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques which are both believed to produce Alzheimer’s symptoms by disrupting the impulses between neurons (Sue et al. 2013). A look into what it feels like to have AD may give a better representation of how the person feels and how their loved ones feel.
It is inevitable that eventually each of us will grow old and begin to face more and more health problems as our age rises. Elderly people are challenged by many illnesses and diseases that unfortunately, are incurable. One disease that becomes more common as people age is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s a common cause and a form of dementia and can severely damage a patient’s cognitive functions and can ultimately cause death. Living with Alzheimer’s disease can be saddening for both the sufferer and the family. Family and friends will find it very hard to cope when a loved one begins slipping away and losing memory of who they are.
Since my father’s dad lived in Ohio and his mother died before I was born, I was only able to see him a few times a year. The proximity to my mother’s parents provided me with a special bond to them as I was growing up seeing them a few times a week. In addition, I had never been alive to see the death of a close family member so my grandfather’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was the commencement of a new e...
In the case of a person with dementia, it is easy to say that they have become a different person. All the changes they go through; change in personality, loss of self-control, and a huge gap in memory that leads them to forget loved ones. Our identity is linked to past and present as well as to
Dementia is classified in three stages. In each stage there are various things caregivers and family members can do to improve the life of their demented loved one. Throughout all three stages of dementia it is important for family members to keep in touch with their loved one. This will make the demented patient feel a sense of belonging and importance. Patients may also benefit from stories, pictures, trinkets, and documents that remind them of the
Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia which is a brain disorder that impairs mental functioning. Dementia attacks the part of the brain which controls memory, language, and thought. It makes everyday tasks like remembering to brushing your teeth, or to pay your bills next to impossible to do, which is why so many people who are diagnosed with this disease are in complete care. This disease has different phases, the first being slight forgetfulness and then the persons emotions may heighten as well as language impairment, violent outbursts, loss of bladder control and from there it keeps getting worse until complete dysfunction of the brain occurs and eventually death, which most of the time is the result of infection.
In the final stage of Alzheimer’s disease, the individual makes little or no effect at communication, and their verbal responses are limited, often one word or just a sound. You must continue to be attentive to how your patient communicates their needs and especially careful to communicate care and concern through touch, facial expression and tone of voice.
Of the many illnesses know today, Alzheimer’s has an effect not only on the patient but on the caregiver or nurse as well. Many journal articles, papers, and books discuss the impact on the role of the nurse and the Alzheimer’s patient. These articles show that over time the impact of this disease puts the nurse out of his or her homeostasis. Through the process of the disease the ability to control and maintain ones self stability is somewhat overwhelming and can lead to depression of the nurse caring for the patient in most cases. Depression and frustration usually comes from the fact that the Alzheimer’s patient’s mental and physical health is gradually dwindling away, and the caregiver or nurse feels helpless. This helplessness comes from the fact that the nurse or caregiver is showing care, compassion, and using all the knowledge he or she has, yet the nurse sees little to no progress in the person because the disease process is taking over. “One caregiver described the disease as being a long journey in which the undeniable end is death, no fixed route, and no estimated time of departure” (Morton, 2003 p.262).
Everyone has a story, a pivotal moment in their life that started to mold them into the person they are today and may even continue to mold you to the person that you will become, I just had mine a little bit earlier than others. When I was three years old my brother became a burn survivor. It may seem too early for me to remember, but I could never forget that day. Since then, I have grown, matured and realized that what my family and I went through has been something of a benefit to be and an experience that has helped me in deciding what I want to do with the rest of my life.
“Difficult, depressing, and tragic” are a few of the descriptions generally associated with illness. Those who suffer from dementia, especially, undergo a realm of these characterizations. With this adversity in mind, most people generate a basic understanding based on education rather than personal experience. It is this preconception that can prevent us from gaining a true insight of one’s reality.
Doctors and researchers are confident that there will soon be a treatment for Alzheimer's. There have been millions who have died or who have progressed too far in their disease. The symptoms` of Alzheimer’s Disease are very hard for the sufferer to deal with. They do not want to rely on a family member to take care of themselves because something is wrong with them. Alzheimer's is a very complex disease. This why scientists have still not found any cure for it. People with Alzheimer's suffer for almost twenty to twenty five years before their death.The worse thing about this disease is the patient does not even remember their family or friends. They also do not release what the actual meaning of life is by the time they die. People suffering from Alzheimer's are emotionally dead long before the physically die.