Has your life been touched by Alzheimer's in any way?
Watch this postToday is World Alzheimer’s day (21st September 2012) Has your life been touched by this terrible disease in any way? Have you had first hand experience with a spouse, a parent, or a friend?
Can you share any experience that would be helpful to other Silverhairs friends?
Log in to comment
You need to be logged in to interact with Silversurfers. Please use the button below if you already have an account.
LoginNot a member?
You need to be a member to interact with Silversurfers. Joining is free and simple to do. Click the button below to join today!
JoinCommunity Terms & Conditions
Content standards
These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (contributions), and to any interactive services associated with it.
You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.
Contributions must:
be accurate (where they state facts); be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.
Contributions must not:
contain any material which is defamatory of any person; or contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory; or promote sexually explicit material; or promote violence; promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; or infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person; or be likely to deceive any person; or be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence; or promote any illegal activity; or be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety; or be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person; or be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person; or give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
Nurturing a safe environment
Our Silversurfers community is designed to foster friendships, based on trust, honesty, integrity and loyalty and is underpinned by these values.
We don't tolerate swearing, and reserve the right to remove any posts which we feel may offend others... let's keep it friendly!
ECHOES OF LIFE .
As I stared into an empty room , all there is , just silence, I wonder if I belong anywhere , no one seems to know who I am , am I here for my duration of my time here , is this all that I am .
Time seems to never end , so I leave this place , where I feel I know longer belong , I say good bye ,but there's no one I can tell , I am an echoe , of one's life , a whispered in the breeze of time .
FORGET ME NOT .
I am in a room of solutude, as I sit in my chair sleeping the time away , as my desires slip away from my life , my dreams become blank and emotionless from within .
Where has my life gone , everything has become so empty, my world is silent , still as the morning breeze that never comes .
As my world has diminished before me , am I here , as I lose myself so often I forget , who I really am , have I become a stepping stone to nowhere , where only my future is a empty void of space , where I don't excist anymore , for I am a thought in the wind of life .
My husband started with symptoms when he was just 50. He had to give up work and I gave up too to look after him. He cried a lot because he couldn't remember things and he knew something was wrong but not what. He stayed at home for 6 years which was very hard, he was a real 'handful' and wanted to 'go home' or 'go to work' and it's very hard to explain to someone at that stage of the disease why they can't do these things. He couldn't dress himself or shower or do anything for himself. He was very agitated in the evenings which they call sun-downing and it was so tiring, he would pace about the house for hours and then get up again soon after I'd got him to bed. He went into a home eventually and cried for weeks. The home would call me and ask me to see if I could calm him down. He died last year aged 66 from a bowel infarction. It's an horrific disease, as they all are. As you said Ansula, guilt is always there and heartache too.
Every time I visit my mother, she says she just wants to come and live with me. This would be so impractical especially because I have my own growing up family, who have needs too.
Has anyone else been in this challenging dilemma? 😥
There was a whole lot of guilt about them ending up in residential care; but the reality was that it wasn't us who put them in that situation, it was the condition and the need for safety. Like you, we couldn't offer 24/7-we had our own families and work, (I won't even have a puppy because my lifestyle wouldn't let me care properly for it, so I would never risk putting a family member at risk either). Please don't beat yourself up - but take photos, postcards along, maybe some hand cream to help being tactile and physical contact.. just take your lead from your Mum. Some days will be better than others, but hopefully you can still have some good times together. Joan