Alzheimer – Life Just Happens Leaving Us With No Options
posted September 13, 2009 - 12:07pm
“Imagine slowly forgetting everything you ever learned in life?
Imagine not knowing what day, year or season it is? Imagine being angry, afraid, tormented, confused, sad and frustrated most days?
Imagine being afraid to do simple tasks like take a shower?
Imagine forgetting how to dress, brush your teeth, use your fork, swallow, laugh and even talk?
Imagine staying awake at night even when you are exhausted because your brain won’t rest? Imagine forgetting everyone that was important in your life…everyone you ever loved?
Imagine sitting with your mother when she turns to you and asks: "Who are you?" or "Why are you here?". Imagine a mother not recognizing her son or daughter…or a husband forgetting his wife and children?
These are real experiences of people with Alzheimer’s disease and they are devastating.”
These words were written by a woman called Shirley – a woman who knows. She’s been through that terrifying dark valley known as Alzheimer’s disease and she’s still trying to heal from the experience. Shirley cared for her beloved mother after she was diagnosed with AD and she watched helplessly as a “tornado” ripped through her mother’s mind, tearing her apart along with all those close to her. She suffered agonies when her mother failed to recognize her as her own daughter. And she suffered further heartbreak when it all became too much and she was forced to place her mother in a nursing home
.
. But the greatest torture of all came just six weeks later when her mother died in that “no expense spared” home which was later found guilty of failing to provide proper care.
Though I have never dealt with these kinds of people myself but I somehow feel that I understand. My father was stuck in Saudi Arabia for 6 years, when he came back home at the time of gulf war he was a totally different person. It is painful to see your loved ones suffering in any way but there are times when you feel totally helpless when you can’t even relate to them with the person you have always known. As if all the vibrancy of life has left them. The inner turmoil takes over totally and in every aspect of life you see them waiting, sometimes even willing the next disaster to happen, so that they can get over the waiting for the worst. So I know sometimes life happens to deal us some nasty surprises and you just can’t do anything about it except to let it consume you. Later comes the frustrating experience of trying to rediscover everything about your life and finding yourself at the beginning of the steep way.
Life just happens but then it must also go on.
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