Dany, I do have family. We had two daughters and a son. Sadly we suddenly lost our youngest daughter at age 15. She was killed by a careless driver. That event introduced me into the real world of...
I'm overwhelmed at all your responses. If some of you are surprised at the brief look into my life, it's as nothing to what I discovered when I decided to research my background. When I was diagnosed...
It's some years since I last posted on the Alzheimer's section. A couple of years after my wife's passing I was diagnosed with Gastric cancer. There was I thinking I'd overcome another of life's...
Like Snowy says, nothing you can do about it, except to love them all the more as you would do a disabled child. Alzheimer's disables the person. Padraig...
Have you experienced taking your child on a trip? Many will recall: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Many parents become upset, others just smile and try to distract them. Our daughter use to...
Once again I see it being reported on the TV news that a survey shows that 75% of carers are unhappy at the treatment their loved ones with dementia receive in hospitals. It is reported that they are...
Snowy, You have so much to offer as you are uniquely placed both from a medical and sufferer's point of view. There are times I feel so helpless and sad when I read of the total lack of understanding...
Snowy, From what I understand, you have a medical background and the best thing I believe is that you retain control of your life as best as you can. You are doing a wonderful job in helping others...
Hi Everyone, Yesterday I attended a meeting dealing with caring in general in the community. The point I wished to put across, was about the carer's control for a loved one who was incapable of of...
Hello Lyn, It's so sad to find that you are unwell. You have given so very much and you now deserve the best of care there is in return. With reference to the book. I finished it some time ago and...
Lyn, I feel so sad to learn of your condition. After all the years you gave to others, I sincerely hope that you receive the very best support you so richly deserve. After my experiences with caring...
Bella, The Irish have a saying: "May I be in haven half an hour before the devil knows I'm dead." I think it's wonderful the way you car for your Mom. Never having had parents or family, I came to...
Hi Bella, I think it's a sad reflection on society that anyone should stare at people with a disability like Alzheimer's. Can't say I know anything about the drugs you mention, but what I do know...
Hello Everyone, It's coming up to two years since the love of my life passed away. 52 years of marriage passed so quickly and now I'm left to reflect on my life, and what a life it's been! Myrio, I...
Once you decide that you have taken complete control of all aspects of your partners welfare the better both of you will feel. Seek advice of doctors for physical problems by all means, but in the...
Hi Erin, So often I read of the medical profession resorting to sedating Alzheimer's patients as a matter of course. Over six years ago my wife fell and suffered injuries. She walked into hospital, a...
I'm sorry to learn your partner is so very ill. I've been there so many times when my wife had to be rushed to hospital. There were a number of times I had to have her rushed to ER. The first time I...
lynnie, None of us want to learn painful facts in life and as for being a wonderful man I don't think so. Like most other people I went through the whole range of emotions in the early years of my...
Hi lynnie, Sorry to tell you yes it is part of the progression. Rigidity set in on my wife when she was in the Nursing Home. There they gave her medication for it, but as I said before I stopped all...
Not only Alzheimer's victims return to the past. In the winter of our years when there is little left to look forward to in a strange world we tend to find peace in a place and time we are familiar...
I solved the problem when my wife could no longer talk, (of course she was in the so called 'end stage' for about six year) by asking 50/50 questions i. e. 'yes' 'no' answers. In the final few months...
Hi Erin01, My wife spent one year in a NH before I could no longer take the stress and hurt of watching her become worse. I can clearly recall the first day I took her out for a day. It was Christmas...
Sadeyes2, Seems to me you have a good man to stand by you. I have many very low days, but then I've learned to keep going and tell myself I'm getting soft: things could be worse, the very worst would...
Hi, Lyn and caregivers. When a spouse has cared for their mate they become acutely aware of the fears they both experience. Right up to the 1970s young members of families in many areas may recall...
Hi Sadeys, There is no way that I can understand how you must be feeling nor how our daughter and son feel at the loss of their Mother, my wife. She passed away last year 12/12/07. I cared for her...
Hi tyno3, You'll never know how your post affected me. The last time I was address as Charlie Rice was 1947. It was a jolt to see it in print by someone else. You see as a child up to the age of 16...
It is impossible to know what goes on in a loved one's mind. There are ways of helping to understand. One, is to talk to them while they can speak, about their childhood which will be very different...
Hi Lyn, I'm sorry to have been away for so long, but I hope you can understand that it is coming up to a year since Jean passed on. You may be aware that I'm writing the sequel to 'Lonesome Stray'...
Hi Hope, I think I know how your Mom must feel. I'm at that place now, my wife passed away last December after 52 years marriage. As to how you feel I have also been there, I placed my wife in a NH...
It must be almost impossible for most carers to understand the dread some people feel about being placed in a NH. Everyone is different and only those who know the loved one the best can sometimes...
This is a new exciting drug from Aberdeen University. Rember comes in the form of a blue tablet and is in the early stages of trials. To date 321 people have been tested and there has been a 81%...
A drug once used to treat hayfever significantly improves symptons in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's research suggests. Dimebon, once licenced in Russia as an antihistamine but was taken...
Hi Lyn and others, I know you are wondering where I got to. Well I am ver busy writing my second book and I can tell you it's very hard work, and time is short. I have completed the first two...
Hello Lyn, Mary, Linda and caregivers. It's some time since I posted because I've been caught up in the buisness of sorting out problems through my lawyers, and the lawyers acting on behalf of the...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and caregivers. There are days that I feel so very alone with no purpose to my life. Each task of getting through the days is such an effort. I'm only too aware that I must use my...
Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers, sorry I've not ben able to post for a few days. Been in some pain, am having trouble moving around. It appears to have come on overnight, as I'd been out running...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and others. At the moment my life is all over the place. I'm trying to write the second part of my story, by beginning with the early signs of Alzheimer's in Jean, up to the stage...
Hi Lyn, Linda, Mary and others. I enjoyed my stay in Spain, could have done with longer. I feel like a child in a different world. It's true that I enjoyed caring for Jean, but if I'd known then, how...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and caregivers. Yesterday I received my passport and on Saturday I'm off to Spain with our daughter for two weeks vacation, my first in 12 years. I'm still scared of entering the...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and everyone. I've not posted for a few days, because it's been an effort to get through each day. I've been so looking forward to going to Spain with our daughter, as I need to...
Hi Lyn, I agree with you and Rosie that somehow the closest ones know when the end is near. Our daughter kept telling me in Jean's last days that her Mom was going to be OK. I kept telling her:...
Hi Lyn, This must be the most painful time for you. To date, you've kept up a super human effort, unlike me you have health and family problems, which add to your caregiving. At the end of it all,...
Lyn I'm very pleased you chose to go down the route I chose with Jean. The whole of the bottom floor had to be made fit for purpose. Like you I've had a shower and non-slip floor tiles installed in...
Dear Lyn, I'd no idea things had reached this stage with your Dad. I'm saddened and shocked by the news. Each day I've been praying and will continue to do so, in the hope you find peace and your Dad...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers. I'd hoped to go shopping this morning with our daughter, but I received a phone call early morn from her to say her Mother-in-Law had passed away. To think her...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers. Lyn, I'm so sorry to learn about your Dad, like Jean, he'll fret when either you or Cait are not around, his sense of time is not ours. Like a child missing...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers. Of late I feel all worn out, so much stress. I received a letter at the weekend asking that I visit my Doctor to discuss the results of my blood test. This left...
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers. Though I've been doing my normal routine of keeping fit I needed to see my Doctor. It appears I have high blood pressure, sorry I don't understand the numbers....
Hi Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers. It's strange how family members react to their loved ones suffering with AD. The closest one, the caregiver, find him/herself bombarded with advice on what to...
Hi, Lyn, Mary, Linda and fellow carers. Now that my caregiving days are over I can't stop reflecting on the course of the past years. So many things I've had to learn for myself. That shouldn't have...