[sidony]

I am so sad today. I've known for a long time that my father had memory problems, and the doctors are pretty sure he has Alzheimer's disease (his sister definitely does, and I imagine it's hereditary). Because I'm going home to visit my parents in a couple of weeks, my mother wrote me with an update. She often hides how he's doing from me. She said that they'd been to a doctor, and he was taking medication (Aricept) now. But when he was at the doctor he was unable to answer questions such as what are the days of the week and what month is this. So sad. He'll see a neurologist soon, but I know there isn't much to be done for this. It's hard for him to talk because he forgets so many words he can barely make a sentence. And he's depressed (of course) because he's aware of it. This is all so sad. I know there's nothing I can do, and I try not to think about it too much. But it's my family. I am so sad.

My father is 76 years old.

Sidony

[lenjan]

((((((hugs)))) I'm sorry to hear about your dad. It is hard to watch your parents decline, I know.

[bebop]

sidony I know how you feel. my dad is getting pretty bad too with his comprehension. he will be 78 soon. spend all the time with him you possibly can.

((( sidony )))

I'm so sorry to hear this. It's a terrible thing for everyone to go through.

My Godmother didn't even know me the last time I saw her.

Words of comfort escape me right now. Just know that you are in my thoughts.

Petunia

[Monty_girl]

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. Alzheimer's is such a hard disease to deal with for both the suffer and the family. Aricept is a great drug to slow Alzheimer's down. By husband's grandmother is taking Aricept now. Before she was taking the drug she couldn't remember her childrens names or even her husbands at times. Since she's been on the drug now she's able to remember names and the days most of the time. I hope the drug works as well for your father as it did for grandmomma.

[sidony]

Thanks everyone. And Monty_girl that's very encouraging! I hope my dad will have good results too. I think he would have started the medicine today. I'm going to see him in a little over 2 weeks. I'm going to do my best to cheer him and my mom up. This is all really hard though.

Sidony

[littlemissjess]

Alzheimer's is such a hard thing to deal with. My grandmother had it for about 6-7 years and she recently passed away this past March. It was really hard for me since I lived right down the street from her, and my mom, dad and I moved in with her to help her dress, eat, basicly do daily things. She began forgetting who I was, getting up in the middle of the night thinking it's day time, would throw eating utensils away, etc. She basicly forgot everything.

We lived with her a year and a half till we decided in May 06' to send her to a local nursing home specialized for Alzheimer's patients. My whole family lost so much sleep since it became a daily basis of her getting up at 4am where my mom had work at 8, and I had school at 7:30. My mother would also put all her attention on my grandmother and never anyone else and it was just a huge downpour on my family. I would get very depressed, but then again my grandmother was in more need than I was.

When she began at the nursing home, she had lost 25-45 lbs (I forget the exact amount), her memory suddenly went away quicker, and she had many seizures and falls where she had broken her hip. Sometimes she would be irrisponsive, would have mood swings, and not eat. She was always up and down, so everyday when the phone rang I felt a panic since I knew one time there will be a close call and it will be her last one.

March 24th 2007 I was home with my boyfriend of 5 months at the time, and my mom and dad. We got a phone call around 9 that night saying that my grandmother's respitory and heart rate was low and we should come over. So, all of us went over and she was hooked up to a monitor. She wasn't responding at all and she was very thin, pale, and weak. We knew this was the end of it. I ended up having to leave at 10:30 to take my boyfriend home. I cried that whole night ofcourse, and I fell asleep right away. My mom came home around 12 and I woke up and she told me she had passed away.

I cried so much, and I still cry to this day. She was like losing my mom or dad, we were close before she had Alzheimer's and I miss her terribly.

If you need anything, you can always PM me any questions.

Good luck with everything with your father.

[sidony]

Thank you so much for sharing your story littlemissjess. I know that must have been such a heartbreak. I am so sorry you had to go through that loss.

Alzheimer's is cruel. My father knows he is losing his memory and is depressed about it. My brother saw him last week and says that he is losing weight because he won't eat much. I hope he will be happier when I am there. I do my best to fill in holes in the conversation and follow what I think he might be talking about (it's hard because he leaves out nouns and isn't coherent). Or else I jump to another topic, maybe tell him something that I think he will find interesting. We'll take walks together I hope. He still likes to work in the yard, picking up leaves and planting things. He can still read, which is amazing since he can no longer write and it's difficult for him to form a sentence. But he reads the paper to my mother while she cooks. She is holding up as well as can be expected. She hides how bad his condition is from me so I didn't know how far along he was (I haven't been home since Christmas since I live a long way away from where I grew up). I hope the medication will help some, but I know the outlook isn't good with this disease. Such an unfair thing to happen.

Thanks again.
Sidony

[littlemissjess]

My grandmother got tired sometimes with her medication so we changed when we gave it to her. My grandmother started losing house keys, car keys, etc. She still insisted that she wanted to drive but we told her no.

[January]

((((((( Sidnony )))))))))

The Aricept will help for a while. It will eventually plateu out and your father will go to a new step. If he ever gets to the point where he won't take his meds, stir the aricept into applesauce or pudding.

You and your family are starting a difficult journey and my heart hurts for you.

Hugs,

Jan

[sidony]

Thanks Jan,

I'll tell my mom putting the aricept in food if he decides not to take it for some reason. Right now I think he won't mind as he hates his memory loss. I hope this will help him for a while anyway.

I get really sad when I think about him being at the doctor earlier this week. I know it was torture for him when they were asking him simple questions that he couldn't answer.

Thanks for everyone's support,
Sidony

[littlemissjess]

No problem. If you ever need to talk about anything you can always PM me. Alzheimer's is a hard thing to deal with. Just be strong.