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Alzheimer's stinks
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<blockquote data-quote="klmno" data-source="post: 329286" data-attributes="member: 3699"><p>This is a horrible disease and very difficult on the family- as you are finding out. I had a member in my family have it and have had a couple of friends whose older parents died from it. I have heard that during the periods where the person thinks they are "back in time" (like thinking their kids were babies and the grown kids standing in front of them are siblings, for instance), that it's better not to correct them. In facilities that house patients they typically have photographs and memoirs of things from the past- somehow this is supposed to be soothing for them and actually help instead of make it worse.</p><p></p><p>As far as caring for them- it would be good for the family to form a plan pretty quickly. Hopefully, someone already has power of attny. Remember to discuss things like father in law wandering off (it most likely will get to that point), when he needs help bathing, if he's doing risky things in the house (lighting candles in the middle of the night then leaving the room), etc. I recommend this because you said some are in denial about it and it appears that the family needs to come to an agreement that when it gets to the point "where father in law is doing ABC, or needs help with XYZ that mother in law can't provide", he will need to be moved to a special care facility. The facility can wipe out finances if they aren't already signed over to someone- it would be good for one of the adult kids and mother in law to go discuss this with an attny now before things get any worse. It's my understanding that only a very small percentage can make it all their lives living in their own home and it can drive those living with them to do drastic things just because of how hard and painful it is to watch and deal with.</p><p></p><p>When you mentioned how hard it will be when "you break the news to him"- do you mean getting off city council or that he has this disease? Either way, I'd consider getting a dr involved in telling him this stuff. For one thing, as they sink deeper into this disease they sometimes have moments where they are a bit paranoid towards other family members and it seems like if he's only getting info about this from the family it could make that worse. Is he seeing a dr for medications that slow the progression?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="klmno, post: 329286, member: 3699"] This is a horrible disease and very difficult on the family- as you are finding out. I had a member in my family have it and have had a couple of friends whose older parents died from it. I have heard that during the periods where the person thinks they are "back in time" (like thinking their kids were babies and the grown kids standing in front of them are siblings, for instance), that it's better not to correct them. In facilities that house patients they typically have photographs and memoirs of things from the past- somehow this is supposed to be soothing for them and actually help instead of make it worse. As far as caring for them- it would be good for the family to form a plan pretty quickly. Hopefully, someone already has power of attny. Remember to discuss things like father in law wandering off (it most likely will get to that point), when he needs help bathing, if he's doing risky things in the house (lighting candles in the middle of the night then leaving the room), etc. I recommend this because you said some are in denial about it and it appears that the family needs to come to an agreement that when it gets to the point "where father in law is doing ABC, or needs help with XYZ that mother in law can't provide", he will need to be moved to a special care facility. The facility can wipe out finances if they aren't already signed over to someone- it would be good for one of the adult kids and mother in law to go discuss this with an attny now before things get any worse. It's my understanding that only a very small percentage can make it all their lives living in their own home and it can drive those living with them to do drastic things just because of how hard and painful it is to watch and deal with. When you mentioned how hard it will be when "you break the news to him"- do you mean getting off city council or that he has this disease? Either way, I'd consider getting a dr involved in telling him this stuff. For one thing, as they sink deeper into this disease they sometimes have moments where they are a bit paranoid towards other family members and it seems like if he's only getting info about this from the family it could make that worse. Is he seeing a dr for medications that slow the progression? [/QUOTE]
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