About
March 2nd, 2006
Right now, it’s just about my family’s struggle with my mother’s Alzheimer’s Disease. How one particular human being defies being a stereotypical AD sufferer.
My mother is almost 84 and was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s in January 2005. I took a few months to accept the diagnosis–she is not a “likely” candidate. No one in her family had it (and her father lived to be 94), and she is a college graduate who worked as a teacher all her life. As I came to terms with it I realized that I’d been explaining away some typical AD behavior for at least a year or so. It’s always surprising to run into your own mental walls.
I have my own house but I moved in with my mother “temporarily” right after the diagnosis. She was suffering at the time from severe depression, accompanied by hallucinations, but I’d seen how being in the hospital had affected my father the year before he died. He’d been admitted because of back problems, and the delerium began for him before his first day was over. The hospital was understaffed and no one acknowledged to me or my family that delerium is NOT uncommon in hospitalized elderly. The change in surroundings along with new medications scrambles their fragile perspective. It reversed itself in my father’s case, once he came home.
So I wouldn’t let my mother enter a hospital then, and I would not let her enter one now–unless she were having a medical emergency. And here we are.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Deb,
I lost my father to Alzheimer’s in January, after eleven long years of constant decline. I don’t know if I would have survived it without my mother’s example to follow. She truly loved her husband and stood by him when all of us were SO ready to give up. She taught me that I would have what I needed to get the job done if I just didn’t give up. She was right.
If there is anything I can do to help, if there is anything in my experience that could be of service to you, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Patty McNally Doherty
August 5th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Dear Patty,
I have just found your web page and I am intrigued because I lost my mom to AD in 2004. My problem was that we lived 500 miles apart. It is a long story and would like to share with you sometime if you would like. I admire anyone who finds out about this disease early enough to know what they are dealing with. i didn’t and saw my mom as being obstenant towards me because I wasn’t there with her. I have only one regret and that is that I didn’t have the knowledge or help from her physicians to let me know what was going on, nor did I have the strength to move myself and family to her, but insisted she come to us. This was more confusion etc. etc. I will continue to view your site to see if there is some way that I can help.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Deb, amazing! I’m working on my Mom’s potential pension, using va form 21-526 today. I’ll mail it to her tomorrow. She’s a WWII vet, retired school teacher and guidance counselor. I’m in virginia and she’s in olympia, wa, in thank goodness, good health for an 84 year old!
May 8th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Deb- I’m doing some work to promote a new study and came across your blog. I’ve really enjoyed reading it and I admire your honesty, integrity and strength. The study looks at the economies of Alzheimer’s drug development. If you’re interested in learning more or can help to spread the word, please contact me.