In December 2012, at age sixty-one, Judy received a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s. The news was deeply distressing, igniting within me a burning anxiety over how I, a wheelchair user born with a spinal cord malformation and living with bunches of body parts...
What are your thoughts on the spouse of an early-onset Alzheimer’s patient dating while said patient is still alive? By way of background, my mother was the full-time caregiver of my stepfather until a few months ago, when he was moved to assisted living, and she is...
Young-onset Alzheimer’s is when someone is diagnosed before the age of 65. With young-onset, caregivers are people who often are taking care of their aging parents and in-laws. Now people like my mom have to add their middle-aged spouse to that. This disease has...
My sketches were always faint lines in pencil. I loved sketching trees in a wide diversity of their structures. Their trunks solid, firmly rooted with the most beautiful textured surfaces which my pencil would try to recreate on paper. Close hatches, very tight...
Kimberly Williams-Paisley is “busy, busy, busy, ” she says on her one day off in Vancouver. But make no mistake: “The busy-ness is by choice,” says the actress, 47, who lives in Nashville with her husband of 16 years, Brad Paisley, 46, and their sons, Huck, 12, and...
My husband and I are currently under contract on a beautiful house here in Florida. For the first time, I am actually excited about living in Florida. Hell, this is the first time in a very long time that I’m actually excited about anything at all. I’m just not a very...
Alzheimer’s is now the diagnosis Americans fear most. Fewer than half of patients diagnosed with ALZ are told. “The main framework America has available to contend with this is . . . that it’s a terrible, destructive ride all the way down and then you die,” he...
Vicki Bartholomew started a support group for wives who are caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s disease because she needed that sort of group herself. They meet every month in a conference room at a new memory-care facility in Nashville called Abe’s Garden, where...
With a bullet in her gut, her voice choked with pain, Dee Hill pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help. “My husband accidentally shot me,” Hill, 75, of The Dalles, Ore., groaned on the May 16, 2015, call. “In the stomach, and he can’t talk, please …” Less than four...
What role does the Mediterranean diet play in dementia care? If you’re a family caregiver, you may be asking this question after seeing recent news stories about this diet and its link to cognitive decline. But family caregivers aren’t the only ones asking about the...
The cause of Alzheimer’s disease has troubled the science world’s best detectives. Michael Regnier asks: can such a mystery really be solved if we gather enough clues? The King of Crete demanded that, to atone for the death of his son, the city of Athens send him...
You are forgetful sometimes, but living in purgatory, unremembering what happened five minutes ago, is probably a blessing. How else to cope with the horror of your life? Buried alive as you are within the confines of a bed and a wall is a daily reminder of death....
Denial: In the beginning, you start to notice things being a little off. This is a difficult stage because only someone close to the individual will pick on these oddities. Sometimes, this goes on for quite some time before someone other than you can start to...
Serving as a care partner for a loved one with cognitive decline can present special challenges. Behaviors such as aggression and paranoia — along with trouble communicating — can make everyday care tasks more difficult. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, brain...
Kathryn’s father moved back in to help out while they continued to look for answers. Finally, Pat got a diagnosis: early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. She was 55-years-old. “It wasn’t the news that anyone wanted to hear, especially my mom,”...
In 2007, a few years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, my grandmother moved into my tía Virgi’s house in the border town of Eagle Pass. I’d been living in New York for four years when my grandmother moved in with my aunt. My mother called me to give me the...
There’s a lot of advice on how to care for someone with Alzheimer’s without, well, losing your mind. Not a lot of it works. I was a very earnest child. My poor parents had to deal with me taking things very literally. I still want to correct every mistake...
Are people who live with dementia sometimes uncooperative, upset, angry or even “aggressive?” Yes. But then again, so am I. If provoked, do people who live with dementia sometimes “lash out?” Yes. But then again, so do I, although extremely rarely in a physical way...
Over the past few years, my family has been involved with my grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s. I painted this portrait as a representation of her decline. Nancy Jane, 2015 Oil on Canvas 16 x 20 in. Madison Luetge graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce...
Sitting beside a neatly made crib, 88-year-old Vivian Guzofsky held up a baby doll dressed in puppy dog pajamas. “Hello gorgeous,” she said, laughing. “You’re so cute.” Guzofsky, who has Alzheimer’s disease, lives on a secure memory floor of a home for seniors. Nearly...
Having lost a grandfather to Alzheimer’s years ago and witnessing my grandmother’s role as a caregiver become more and more necessary during his progression, I was inspired to write a piece from the viewpoint of a caregiver. Our hope is that the song can...
Lee, aka Intuition, shares the story of his father’s transformation since his early Alzheimer’s diagnosis. You can read more about the story behind the song on his...
My latest hang-up is with Sundown Syndrome. Sundowning is the term or condition used to describe late day confusion, agitation, and restlessness typically associated with seniors with some form of dementia. As nightfall approaches the mood in the house changes....
Janet Adkins, a fifty-four-year-old English teacher, decided to make herself gone before the disease got the chance. Diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, she was Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s first client. A minister friend asked me recently about my grandfather. I...
Carrie Clarke is a former traditional signwriter who has worked for many years in the arts and health field. She is currently an Occupational Therapist working with an NHS inpatient unit for people with dementia in Exeter, UK; she is also a practising artist. In 2010...
Magnetic resonance images are revolutionizing dementia diagnosis because of the use of computers for their analysis. The brain degeneration that causes failure of memory can be detected before symptoms arise, which raises new perspectives for treatment. Richard...
Whether you’re new to caregiving or a veteran, there are still things to learn about the US healthcare system. This series of videos from Alz Live provides a roadmap. This is part five of an eight part series. Helping caregivers and families improve interaction...
As we continue to celebrate Grandparent’s Day, we’re tackling an issue that impacts many grandparents and their caregivers: Alzheimer’s Disease. Taking care of yourself while you’re caring for someone else isn’t optional. In fact, 40% of...
Michelle Spadafora, Care Manager for Caregiver Homes, talks about sundowning. She shares her own family experience with ALZ and talks about the creative approaches that help manage this potentially dangerous behavior.
Most loved their mothers unconditionally, in spite of so much, and others had loved them enough (and often to no avail) to hate them. – Laurel E. Anderson
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