Moment of clarity, shortly before dying

The mind is capable of a great deal of things so it doesn't me surprise me that this could happen. I have never seen it personally, when my Gma died she was in "the death rattle" when I got to her side at the hospital.

I'm sorry for your losses.

Thank you, Sherry and Miriam, for your responses.

Miriam, I can only imagine how sad and unsettling it is to see a once vibrant parent, now at a loss of understanding about what should be a familiar world.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on Alzheimer's, but I'd like to offer two thoughts on the disease - one simple, one philosophical. First simple: When the actions and responses of my in-laws seemed illogical, I comforted my logical mind by viewing their condition this way. I told myself that their brain is slowly dying in chunks. And once a chunk dies, it loses its ability to contribute its portion of memory, function or abilities to the whole. Because certain memories, like being in the war, or the name of a spouse, "live" in many chunks, these deep and extensive memories can continue to thrive almost until the end.

Now the philosophical one.

I've been guided lately to start reading books about souls. The first book someone offered was Evolution Angel. It was life changing for me. Then another person suggested the Brian Weiss series. And now I'm reading Journey of Souls. I come from a strong religious background, but over time the lack of logical answers about the meaning of life drove me away from religious thinking all together. Reading these books has opened my eyes to some very real, "logical" answers to my questions. They may help you. What I think I "know" now is that people are a combination of matter (the physical body) and energy (the invisible entity that animates our bodies, retains our experiences and lives on after our physical bodies die. Some call it our spirit, others our soul, but I also think it is what we think of as our subconscious.) The conscious mind (our brain) is the gatekeeper between our conscious world and our souls. Everything that happens to us in our life gets immediately logged into our soul, but our brain only notices and remembers what it believes is important for us to retain during this life. As our gatekeeper brain dies, it loses what it's retained, but everything is still in our soul. That is why I think, when the brain is weakened by Alzheimer's, the soul is able to commandeer our physical bodies for a moment, when the soul "sees" that it would be a loving gesture to do so.

I know this may sound contrived and far fetched, but so do all of the books I'm reading about souls that seem to ring so true to my logical mind.

I hope in some small way I've helped to lighten your load and brought you some kind of light of hope that your loved one may be physically leaving, but she is still very much reachable through your soul and hers.

Hi this is my first time on Alzheimer's page I spend my time on Hepatitis page as I have chronic liver disease. My mum-in-law is 83 was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 2/3 years ago, she was physically ok, used to walk round the residential home no trouble to anyone she wouldn't have conversations just agree with what ever you said. 2 weeks ago we went in to see her when she went to get out of bed her right leg wouldn't function, she was saying she had pain in middle of her chest & a back ache, but would then forget. My reason for asking for advise is that she was taken to our local hospital in U.K. was there a few days still conscious, they told us she had cancer right throug her body, sent back to the residential home, put on paliative pathway(end of life stage). She has not been awake since Sunday, sleeping (& snoring ) a special team we have over here called the McMillan nurses who deal end stage life come in & give an injection, morphine when she needs it, my question is do you think she should be the syringe drive which slowly releases morphine instead of waiting to see her flinching with pain? example being we cannot be with her 24/7 how do we knw if she needs a top up for nurses to called out, as she is not in a hospice only with care workers who have lots of patients shouting screaming walking in her room as door needs to be open when we are not there, my daughters, her granddaughters are not coping seeing her like this, it destroys me seeing my girls watch their nan like this. Sorry to waffle once again I find healingwell the best thing, I just wish I knew about it while I was drinking my self to death literally, I have been sober for 9 months now and will remain so, my girls are just getting over me having days to live, I feel so helpless for them. I just tell myself If something doesn't kill you then it can only make you stronger, but I am 48, the girls are in their teens

Lots of admiration for all moderators involved in Healingwell
Regards
Sue

Yes we have what is called a syringe driver which is given via a drip & slow releases of morphine. This is fitted by the end of life nurses, they know when end is getting very close, & top up a little more often so no pain at end stage, it does howevever bring the end a little closer, but next of kin is the person that has to agree to this, unfortunately my ex-bro-in-law is not here often, and hardly seen her during the 2 years of her Alzheimer's my daughters & I are there as often & as long as we can, the good news is when we get the phone call if we are not with her is that we live 5 minutes away from her nursing home
Thanks for your reply

My father had alzheimer and I had to place him in a nursing home with a locked unit for alzheimers. He became unable to talk for years and when his respirations were fast and shallow the home called me and I got there to spend time with him before he passed away. I held his hand and told him I loved him and that I will be ok when he leaves and I will see him again. He opened his eyes and looked right at me with such clarity and he whispered that he loved me to and thanked me for being there with him. Then he closed his eyes and stopped breathing. I will never forget that.
Betsey