I have known that my mother is in her early stages of alzheimers also for a couple of years, and we have dealt with it accordingly with love and patience. She sees the doctor twice a year, even though she thinks that she had just visited last week. She is 84 years old, bless her heart.

As far as history is concerned, her mother had it, but that is as far back as we go. Her sister has it and is getting really bad to a point that she doesn't recognize people any longer. This has been coming on for about two years now. So as far as skipping a generation, I don't find this the case.

I live on the east coast and my parents live in the midwest near my children and my sister. My father had just passed away the beginning of last month, and I am now with my mother to help her with her next steps in life. She is completely functional, but very forgetful, so we have been looking for independent living with assisted living as things progress. The progression is getting worse every day and her depression is not helping matters either.

My parents were inseparable. They owned a tavern and worked together for over 30 years. Everything they did was together. I fear that not only will her condition worsen rapidly, but also she might give up on life altogether because of our great loss. I do not have any idea which way to turn.

I can relate to your position.

Kitkat, how is your mom doing? How are you doing? I know it is tough to be a care giver for someone you love.

I haven't heard from you in a while, so I just thought I would check in.

Tony

Hey everyone! My name is nancy and i'm new to this forum so I thought i'd go ahead and introduce myself. I'm a mother of two and just recently began caring for own mother. Things have changed so drastically in the past year for her, mostly her health. She has slowly started to forget things and I fear more than anything that this is the begining of alzheimers. It started out with family birthdays, but has now escalated to conversations from an hour earlier. I've never dealt with anything remotely close to this, so I am lost at this point. I feel I am in teh same boat as all of you in this forum so if anyone has any advice, helpful suggestions, i'm all ears..

Nancy,
have an assessment done on your mom to test for alzheimers. Ask her doctor to see if there is a center that can review and evaluate her status. Sometimes it will call for a ct scan to see what the constriction of the vessels in the brain are. It is quite thorough, but at least you will have a diagnosis or a reason for her memory loss.

If you are interested here is a little more of my story.

My mother was diagnosed with alzheimers about three years ago. However, my father was very healthy and active at that time.

A year ago, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had gone through the routine chemo/radiation treatments with no good results.

Last aug. He fell and broke his hip. I left my wife and dogs in rhode island and stayed with them while dad had hip sugery. He was sort of in remission, but the cancer was still there.

Mom was not handling his situation at all. I stayed with them through rehab, rearranged their legal papers, found home caregivers, and had mom staged, to be able to protect them from anything outside. They would have to go through me before anything was approved.
Mom tested at a stage 2/3 at that time. Digression was not happening yet.

Dad passed away on 3/6 of this year. He fought a great fight. Mom is now on the downward slide. She is now a stage 4/5. I just had an assessment done with a ct scan to determine what needs to be done.

My wife and I have not been together since dad's death, she has a job which she needed to be at. Our lives right now are based around mom. I am now looking for an assisted living residence (alr) near my sister, which is a story I really don't want to get into at this point, that has an alzheimers unit for now and later care.

I promised dad that I would make sure mom was safe. I am doing everything I can. Mom is now sometimes very arrogant and testy. She thinks there is nothing wrong with her and can stay in the house without supervision. Not! Being as I am medical power of attorney, I am responsible for her well being. I am burning out quicker as time wears on. I finally have her convinced that the alr is the best option. Living at home is not an option. I watch over and correct situations before they become a crisis.

Living with this miserable desease is worse for the caregiver than the person inflicted. They slowly deteriorate, we live and see the deterioration.

Tony-
thank you for sharing your story. I am very sorry for your loss an give you a huge amount of credit for taking this on. Your parents are very lucky people. My mother is currently living with my becuase my father has too passed away. Fortunatley, she has not been diagnosed with thsis horrible disease but we do have an apointment with a neurologist in the next week so we will have a better answer then. In the early stages of your mothers condition, did you ever feel like it was something that you could have prevented? Or slowed down? I feel pressure to make sure that my mother stays active or I make sure that I read to her or just sit and tell her stoires. I want her mind to stay stimulated because I fear that if I don't, her mind will deteriorate at an evwen faster rate. Kind of like the old saying that if you don't use it, you lose it.

I hope everything works out with you and your family. It's children like you that make parents very lucky in life.
Cheers
- nance

Nance,
thanks for your reply. Looking back, there wasn't anything that could have been done to avoid this miserable desease from coming on. I have received some great assistance from her clinic about keeping her in social atmospheres to stimulate her mind as much as possible, word games, reading and discussion on what was read. They had said anything that would keep the thought process moving.
We have bee searching out assisted living residence close to family and friends, so she can keep what's left active as much as possible. I have one that we are on the waiting list that specializes in dementia and alzheimers people. They concentrate on their activities and make sure they do not hole themseles in their room and "rot". It was a long time search, but there it was.
Our estimate at this point is that she is in stage 3/4 of dementia. Her short term memory is pretty much gone. She forgets what day it is and what happened just an hour ago. Once she gets a hint, she will remember some of it, but not all.
Mom is on aricept and started namenda, for the third time. She stopped taking it while dad was still alive. She felt that it made her dizzie. Not good for an 84 year old lady. Now after coaxing from the clinic people, she is willing to try it again. This time she has me to deal with if she refuses.
I just keep praying for not only something that will help her, but also for patience and strength for myself and my wife (she and I are from rhode island. I was here and she was there, but today she took a 2 week loa from work and is here now, thank god).I will keep you informed of our progress, please do the same with yours.
Sometimes it is nice to have people to chat with in the same boat, also just to hae someone listen.
Thanks again.

Hi tony-
no worries. We are all here to listen and help if we can. I took it upon myself to start researching abotu alheimers/dementia adn memory loss just so I could be a bit more educated. I read a lot about certain products that are avaialble to actually aid in memory loss. I went to some of those websites and signed up with my email to recieve more info. I got this email this morning if anyone else might be interested.

__________________________________________ ___________________

introducing mindfit, a new program from cognifit designed specifically for mature adults who want to enhance their cognitive vitality … to exercise their brain as they would other muscles in their body.

Because you are an active participant in the internet community on this topic, we would like to offer you this product free, in exchange for your feedback. If interested, please email us back.

When we receive your email we will send you a code to download a free copy, a $129 value, of the mindfit software, absolutely free, that will be yours to keep. All we ask for in exchange is a testimonial about your experience with the software, e.G., is it user friendly, fun to use, stimulating, etc. If more than one individual in a household will be participating, make sure to send both names and confirmation to write a testimonial. Sorry, but emails received after may 19, 2006 will not be eligible for this free offer.


To see what others have said about mindfit, visit the testimonials page on our website at E-mindfitness.Com. Maybe your testimonial will be the next one to be added to our site. This will be the last email you receive from us, unless you sign up to be on our web site to be added to the cognifit mailing list.


__________________________________________ ___________________

i thkink i'm going to give it a shot and check it out.
-nance

Please keep me informed of you findings. I would be interested.

Thanks for being there.
Tony

No problem! Everyone needs someone to talk to. I responded to that email and the program looks great actually. I downloaded it this morning and just skimmed through some exercises but I honestly think its something that my mother could benefit from. Let me know if you would like to forward the email to you. In the meantime, take care of yoruself.
Talk to you sooon
- nance

Hello every body , first post so please be gentle.

After reading all about your experiences with alzheimers , I thought I would share mine.
My mum has been diagnosed with alzheimers for for about 4 yrs now and it has been real hard for all us us to cope with.
She started to get worse while my dad was looking after her , and actually assaulted my father a couple of times, I would imagine it was pure frustration on knowing that she could do all the same things before but unable to remember how to do them now.
She even got to the point that she didnt live in the family home and was adamant that it wasnt her house,so the door had to be locked at all times or she would "escape" and wonder around the town for hours not knowing where she is or how to get home, extremely frightening for the whole family while out searching for her, and assisting the police in searching as well.
As things started to get worse she was admitted into a full time nursing home as my father couldnt cope anymore, even though he tried really hard.
Things took a drastic turn for the worse in january this year when she had a massive bleed in the brain that was too deep for the surgeons to operate on, we were told that she only had a 10% survival chance, amazingly she pulled through it, but the bleed left its damage, she was unable to speak or walk properly.
She went back to the care home with the family spending as much time with her as possible and taking her out in the wheelchair as soon as the weather was good.
On the 30th march she had another 2 massive bleeds in the brain, again, the doctors told us that the next 24-48 hrs were critical and the would be very surprised if she made it.
She has pulled through it again and is due to come back to the nursing home today or tomorrow.

I apologise if my first post is long , but it helps if I write it all down,it also helps that I know that there are other familys who are going through the same as us , and there is always some1 there for to offer support or to ask questions when I need to.
Thank you for reading this.

Peter,

i am so sorry to hear about your mum. You and your family are going through some tough times. My prayers are with all of you. It seems like when you feel that things are on an even keel, something comes along a knocks you over. The emotional roller coaster.

I have the fear of my mom getting to the point of wandering. That is why since my dad died, I have been with her all the time. Soon she will be going to the assisted living residence, and I can get back to life again. It has been quite a year for us, but again, the dear lord will be with us all.

Let us know how things go, as we will to you.

Tony

Thank you for that tony.

Our thoughts are with you too,we know what you are going through.

Hi tony- how have you been? Hopefully great! Havent heard from you in a while , I just wanted to see how you were holding up. Take care
-nance

hi tony- I ended up purchasing the program and they gave me an extra 10% off the price. It made me feel betetr because I do hate to pay full price for anything (i got this from my mother). Here is the code for the extra 10% off: prtnr08
hope all is well
- nance

Hi there tony, nance and peter. You have all had a bad time but you all did the loving thing, and that part is great. Sometimes it is too late to help ward off this dreadful disease but for someone in the earlier stages, and for those whose memories are just getting bad, there is hope. From memory, (accidental pun), omega 3 fatty acids are essential. Also lecithin in capsule form protects the sheath surrounding the nerves involved. Both of these are in oil form inside the capsule.
One of my favourite sites is edit
edit
he is a medical dr who is entirely with the health world. One can sign up fot his regular emails where there is a hive of info on a vast array of subjects...Leading to different links on other sites as well of course. The info is amazing. He is a stirrer and a fighter against things that are amiss, such as non stick cooking utensils that have something very poisonous in them, and beaurocracy that has gone mad etc,etc. But he stresses dietary changes and natural products as treatment for every sort of disease.

I know that it is some time since your last postings but I thought I could add a little bit too, thanks for listening.

I am really interested in what you will find. Please mention it in this thread too.

Jai
http://www.alzheimersmemoryloss.info

My Nan had alzheimers. And her mother had it too so its hereditary, but it didnt skip a generation. Her mother had it then she got it and so did her brother, but her other 2 brothers dont have it..........

Her symptoms were not being able to remember things that had happened recently but remembering in detail things that happened tens of years ago. She would forget who people are, where she was, where she put things and would find it hard to string a sentence together sometimes and often dithered as if she had forgotten what she was talking about half way thru a sentence. She would often do strange things, such as, i came in once to find her making a cup of tea and trying to mix jelly in with it................ then she would say she didnt want any dinner and then when you took it off her she complained that she didnt have any dinner now..................She also used to ask about seeing her mum, or say that her dad would be wondering where she is, even though they had both been dead for over 15 years at least. She lived in her home with my Grandad for over 50 years yet didnt think that was her home and always used to ask "when are we going home" She died in July 2005 at the age of 81, her mother had passed away in January 1989 at the age of 88.......... its a very perculiar thing and hard to detect, it almost seems to just creep up un-noticed

Hi everyone, I've just had my mother-in-law diagnosed with Alzehimers, although we suspected it for long. It's comforting to find others in the same situation, right now I'm particularly worried as to whether this will be hereditary. My wife is 50 and keeps forgetting things, but surely that can't be a sign that early. A worry nevertheless. We don't know of any relatives in older generations who might have had Alzimers which is probably a good sign though.

Forgot to say, I'm of course interested as well on any tips. Grasping at any straw here.