The Alzheimer's Factor
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Send to a friend by YMAuthor: Clive Jenkins
Experiences of how I had to cope with discovering that my mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. How her condition deteriorated and how she adapted to her care home.
I remember growing up and sharing precious moments with my mother. Going for long walks and doing all the craziest things that you would just happen to do because you could. I had a fantastic relationship with my mother and everybody always commented on it. My mom was a teacher at my school and taught mathematics to the children. She was very smart and had one of the sharpest memories you could dream of. There was nothing you could get past her and she would never forget a thing.
As I entered adulthood, Mom and I still had a great relationship, only now in later life she started forgetting little things. Small things at first like taking the milk out of the fridge on a hot summer’s day and forgetting to put it back in to keep it fresh. Seemed like nothing at the time but then things started to slowly develop to new depths.
She was slowly losing her memory as I knew it and this became apparent to all of those around her. Being concerned I had the doctor take a good look at her and they ran some tests. We were later told that Mom had Alzheimer’s Disease. The whole family was shocked and very concerned with the news. Those days of sharing all those precious moments with Mom were gone. It got to the stage that she didn’t even know who I was. She would seemingly know me and then the next minute she would ask who I was and what I was doing in her house.
She now gets Alzheimers Help and is living in an Alzheimers caregiver home. We visit her frequently but to be honest I’m not sure she always knows we’re really there. Sounds harsh but it’s true. I guess we’ve just had to come to terms with the fact that we’ve lost our Mom as we knew her. The nurses are great in the home she’s at though. They provide some really good care and fully support her needs.
It’s the whole acceptance of the disease that’s been hard for the family though. My other brothers and sisters just can’t seem to accept the fact that our mom is the way she is now. They still picture her as she was when she was teaching Mathematics. I’m sure there are many others in the same situation but I just wanted to share my experiences with anybody that this story will help. I was very ignorant towards Alzheimer’s Disease when I didn’t know enough about it but now, I try to help others with similar situations. I believe that there are currently around 18 million people worldwide with Alzheimer’s Disease and that figure may well even double by to 36 million by 2025.
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