Describe My Relationship With Alzheimer's

My grandfather's dementia had gotten worse with age. He had developed a habit of walking out of the house randomly. They lived alone in their apartment in Pakistan. One day he walked out the same way and did not return for a long time. We were later informed that he had tripped on his way and broke his hip. After surgery my grandmother called me, I was living abroad at that time, and said, "I don't think he will recover, he is in a lot of pain" I assured her otherwise. She said, "I can't live without him. I don’t want him to die." The helplessness and grief in her voice was agonizing. She would often call and cry, it became tough overtime as I was abroad and not fully aware of his progress. I am her oldest grandchild, and she treats me like

My grandma Linda was her only daughter. I spent weeks at Ma’s house in Holstein, Iowa. Christmas for the Grell’s was always hosted at Ma’s house. When I was young she would take me swimming at the communities pool, and ice cream afterwards. Ma’ was an expert cook, her favorite summer dish was fried chicken. She was nearly famous for that fried chicken. In September of 2012 Doctors discovered a tumor in Ma’s liver. Ma’s children paid for an assisted living home in Sioux City, Iowa. She pasted away March 21, 2013. Leading up to March the relationship between my mother and her parents decrepitated. My grandparents refused to come to my high school graduation.

A talk on antibiotics first sparked my interest in the importance of drugs. Ever since I have

My grandma was my superhero with her genial personality and her ability to give you her full, undivided attention in order to listen to whatever you had to say. It was always my dream to be able to share both my high school and college graduation with both my parents and grandma and being able to later pay them all back for all their sacrifices. Towards the beginning of my sixth-grade year my grandma became unexpectedly sick and as months passed her health slowly began to deteriorate until she fell into a vegetative comatose for the next four years. My grandma’s sudden illness came as an unexpected surprise which leads to my mom and her family having to take turns in order to care for my grandma throughout her extensive hospital visits and inhome medical care. Throughout those four years both my emotional and mental health took a hit as I tried my best to learn how to deal with her sudden illness and the fact that my mom was rarely home because she was either in the hospital or at my grandma’s house in order to help take care of

On the topic of “Building in Family Dynamics in Coping with Alzheimer’s Disease” by Marty Richards, I enjoy the lecture and learn new insight about family. The lecturer addressed the aspects of family dynamics—roles, rules, secrets, and responsibility—are significantly effect on all families with dementia. Also, I do agree with the lecturer that this problem relating to one person in the family impacts to all generation in the family, literally called family disease. To provide better care is to understand the family uniqueness. There is no one size fit all. Each family has their concerns and strengths, and defines a situation differently. Thus, integrating care partners in providing care in dementia is essential; maintaining family member’s

Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects roughly 3 million families each year, including my own. Around this time three years ago my parents got a call that changed our entire lives. At 3 A.M. they received a phone call from a police department, in a surrounding town, that they had pulled over my step-grandpa, who was driving down the highway on the wrong side of the road. This was the first of many calls that my parents received in regard to my grandfather. There were instances of him showing up to work, although he was 20 years in retirement. He would go out to eat and not realize that he had been at the restaurant 10 minutes prior to eat. Quickly, my parents realized that something was off and medical assistance was needed. After some series of testing, it was very clear to the doctor that Alzheimer’s was the answer to his lack of memory and at the age of 86, he was officially diagnosed with the disease. This news was hard for my entire family, and extremely hard for my step-father. Not only did the doctor determine that Alzheimer’s was causing these events to occur, but that there was a genetic link and my step-father could also carry the gene. He has personally chosen not to test for the gene, and to continue to live his life to the fullest. As a family, this is something that has changed our lives

This study evaluated how people with Alzheimer’s disease present their life story. The authors utilized a narrative design using interviews as their basis for researching the importance in developing the knowledge about how people with Alzheimer’s disease present their life story, since life story work is believed to be a key concept in person-centered care according to these authors. A total of nine (9) participants (5 women and 4 men), aged 60-81 years were recruited via a geriatric clinic, healthcare center or by advertisement in local newspapers. All data collection, through interviews, was conducted in the patient’s home. Participants were asked questions pertaining to the following areas of their life: childhood, adult life, occupations,

Alzheimer’s is a difficult disease for everyone to understand. This disease has diverse effects on each person diagnosed with it. Considering that the symptoms are similar to other diseases and syndromes, it may be hard to know the initial cause of the disease itself. Knowing if someone truly has Alzheimer’s only comes after the person’s death and an autopsy is performed on the brain. By better understanding the disease with information that we already have, it will help further assist alongside someone who is undergoing this destructive process.

Alice, a highly successful college professor, was diagnosed in her early 50’s as having Alzheimer’s disease. Her mother and sister died in a fatal car accident and her father was an alcoholic. The gene genetically could have been passed on to Alice by her father. Alice Alzheimer’s was an early onset. She was diagnosed as cognitive impairment. “Up to 5 percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer's (also known as younger-onset), which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s (Alz.org Research Center).” Not knowing what changes was happening with her, Alice continued her daily activities. She began noticing the disease impact on her as it made it progression.

I am from South Brisbane (Logan area). I have been an aged and disability carer in the community for the last 5 years. When I first started in this role, I had a few clients that were living with dementia. It became obvious to me after a short amount of time, that I had not had enough training to give these people the support and understanding that they needed. I do not know how much dementia training other companies give to their staff, however, the company I work for only gives us about 2 hours a year. I want to have as much knowledge about this disease as I can, to be able to give my customers the care that is appropriate to their needs.

An obstacle I have faced is helping with the care of my grandmother who had Alzheimer’s. It was a challenge for my family and me since the one that took care of us was now the one we had to take care of. She had Alzheimer’s for about three years. The first year we could see the signs starting to show more frequently and we had to help her with small things such as directions, driving her places instead of her driving herself, having to tell her who someone was, things like that. Then as year two came about six of the family members including myself had to alter our lifestyle to care for her. Each of us had a night or two we spent the night with her. We also had to start fixing her dinner, picking out her clothes, she would get up at two o’clock

When I was younger, I grew up with four grandparents who I could spend time with. As I started to grow older, my grandparents started to deteriorate. My grandmother developed Alzheimer’s, and more specifically dementia. I remember one day at my beach house when I was talking to her, she asked me who I was because she couldn’t remember. She didn’t remember her own grandson. She started to lose all her memory and she had difficulty hearing and speaking. It got to a point where there was no way of communicating with her, and we wondered if she even knew who her own family was. She went through this deterioration for upwards of 5 years, and I it got to a point where I forgot what she was like before she developed the mental disease. I would watch

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. This neurological condition is brought on by the malfunction or death of neurons in the brain, causing changes to one’s memory, behavior, and ability to think and reason logically and clearly. There is no cure for the disease and very little available to treat the symptoms. While AD was discovered over 100 years ago by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, it has only been in the last few decades that research and science have started to understand the inner workings of the neurological degeneration and possible hypothesis as to its cause. However, the physiologic changes that trigger the change in neurons still remains unknown. AD worsens as it progresses and life expectancy following diagnosis is approximately seven years; fewer than three percent of individuals will live more than 15 years after their diagnosis (Mölsä, Martlla, Rinne, 1995).

In the last year my great aunt was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease along with many other people worldwide. The diagnoses took my family by surprise because my great aunt had been so healthy up until she started showing signs of this horrible disease. Naturally my family had so many questions on what was to come and how this disease was going to affect my great aunt. The doctors gave us many options and stacks of paperwork that was filled with research over the disease. The statistics on the disease shocked me to the core. After reading this research, I had so many questions that were left unanswered, but my biggest questions being why is this horrible disease becoming more common? Is the disease genetic or hereditary? I had so many questions

We are all blessed with our grandparents. Some of us are lucky to spend a few hours, days, or weeks with them. I know I am definitely lucky to still have my grandmother around, however, she is not quite there. My baba (grandmother in Serbian) was the most independent and loving human being I have ever come across. She was constantly putting her children, grandchildren, and people she did not even know first. Baba was “the rock” of our family, keeping us all together, until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. I will never forget the day I found her house a wreck. The situation really hit my family hard because the fun, loving baba we all knew would soon start to forget due to this awful disease and would later have to move in with us.