Family with Alzheimer's

Imagine waking up and not knowing the person lying next to you. Imagine waking up and not knowing your own name, your birthday, or you age. Imagine having to look at your family and ask them who they are, or be reminded by flipping through a photo album. Imagine going for an evening stroll and getting lost, even though you are only a block away from your house. Imagine seeing your loved one not remember you. Imagine visiting them as often as you can, and every time having to remind them who you are, and how you affected their life. This is known as a disease call dementia. Dementia disease is very hard for the patient themselves, but often times harder for the family. Alzheimer disease is a form of dementia, and makes daily living very

Dementia is an extremely common disease among the elderly, with 4 million Americans currently suffering from the Alzheimer’s type alone. Figures show that 3% of people between the ages of 65-74 suffer from the disease, rapidly increasing to 19% for the 75-84 age bracket, and as high as 47% for the over 85s. Therefore, it is easy to see why Dementia is such a large part of many people’s lives, whether they are suffering from the condition themselves, or have an elderly relative who requires full time care just to undertake simple day to day tasks. The disease can be extremely traumatic for the patient and their families, as the person, who may have been extremely lively and bright throughout their

Familial Alzheimer’s Disease (FAD) is a form of mental deterioration characterized by the formation of amyloid plaques around neurons in the brain. While there appears to be multiple ways general Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) can develop, FAD is a rare type of AD that can be acquired hereditarily. Of all general Alzheimer’s cases, around 1-5% are FAD specific, which translates to about 50,000 to 250,000 people (Strobel). Children of people who have acquired certain genetic mutations linked with FAD have been shown the potential of inheriting these mutations and developing FAD as a result. Mutations in the presenilin proteins (PSEN1; PSEN2) or in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) have been shown to be linked with FAD. PSEN1 is most prominently

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

Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that results in dementia, disorientation, problems with speech, and behavioral issues within a person. This disease is detrimental and has no cure. Almost every single person knows someone that has this disease, or has known someone that has had this disease. That is the reason that I chose to research this particular topic. In 2013, my great uncle was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. He was the most down to earth man you would ever meet. He had a great sense of humor and always kept a smile on his face as well as the faces of the people that he was around. When he was diagnosed, we were devastated because we knew that this disease would eventually consume and take over his life. One of the very bold memories that I have of him after a year after his diagnosis was when we took a family trip to the mountains. We have a pretty large family, so we stayed in a mountain house. Well, the kids wound up sleeping down stairs together. On the second night that we were there. I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning to yelling that was coming from the top of the stairs. I immediately recognized that it was my uncles voice and I began to get worried. Everyone was asleep, but I could hear him telling my aunt that he needed to go down stairs and make those kids stop playing basketball. I knew in that moment that his diagnosis was getting worse and worse by the day. This was the type of thing that scared me. Alzheimer’s

Imagine greeting your grandparents and being met with a blank stare. Visualize your father struggling to recall how to dress himself. Picture your own mother asking for her parents who have long since passed. Try to envision the expression on your parents’ face as you tell them that they can no longer live at home alone. Now picture yourself in their place: gradually losing your freedom, your memory, and your very own identity. Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that slowly destroys the brain’s function of memory and cognition. Eventually, it terminates the person’s ability to do everyday tasks and requires the person to be under around-the-clock care.

I’m going to talk about Alzheimer and my great grandma’s situation. First I’ll talk briefly about Alzheimer disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most Familiar cause of Dementia. This word Dementia describes a set of symptoms that can includes memory loss and also difficulties of thinking, problem solving or even language. These symptoms appear when certain diseases are damaging the brain, which also includes Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a physical disease that affects the brain. It’s a progressive disease more parts of the brain would be damaged and as this happens, more symptoms develop and becomes more severe it . My great grandmother had Alzheimer when she was really old I don’t remember her age correctly because I was too young at that

Ever wonder where you left your keys or found yourself in a room without remembering why you ended up there? Imagine going through this several times throughout the day. Dementia is in my parental grandmother’s medical history. Dementia is a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). My grandmother is dealing with changes in mood as well as personality, memory loss and difficulty completing family tasks that disrupts her daily life due to Dementia. In this essay I describe how grandmother came to be diagnosed with Dementia; how my family has dealt with my grandmother’s cognitive decline; and what this disease has taught me about my grandmother, about my family and myself.

Declining memory is the most significant symptom. Newly formed episodic and semantic memories are the first to vanish and it becomes almost impossible to encode any new memories. Other symptoms include disorientation of year and location, sundowning, incontinence, personality changes, and inappropriate social behavior. These symptoms make it difficult for individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s to care for themselves. They often become a danger to themselves due to their likelihood to wander off and forget who they are and how to return home. Poor self-care is common with difficulties with hygiene and feeding. The combination of symptoms makes it hard to care for someone who has Alzheimer’s. As the disease progresses many individuals cannot remember family members and forget important life

I needed to fully understand what was happening to my grandma. In an article the authors stated, “Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in older adults that damages the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behaviour. The identification of differentially expressed genes and related pathways among affected brain regions can provide more information on the mechanisms of AD.”(Bemelmans) The disease attacks the brain’s nerve cells, which results in memory loss. Symptoms of Alzheimer’s get worse over time, so daily tasks become more difficult to complete. I’ve seen these symptoms worsen, which is something no teenager wants to deal with. The everyday tasks my grandma used to do were slowly ending and her house started becoming the only place she would

Several years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Before her diagnosis, she was very jovial and kind to everyone. However, my family and I slowly began to notice a change in her behavior. The first thing we noticed was that she became very forgetful, which we thought at first was just age related. Then she started to become angry, stubborn and even violent. One of my cousin noticed these changes in her behavior and alerted my grandmother’s primary physician. After further examination and tests, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Today, the span of her memory is about five minutes. She believes the year is 1982, and that she is sixty years old when in fact, she is eighty six years old. What she can remember

Daughters: Our mom was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. We are worried about her because she lives home alone, however we primary take care of her.

Memory loss caused by onset dementia has greatly affected the life of my grandmother. Since suffering head trauma from being in a car accident in April of 2014, my grandmother has abruptly declined in health. She resides in an apartment alone with her dog, and her dementia affects her every day activities. She will forget that she has already fed her dog and try to feed him again, will telephone family members up to three times a day and not remember the previous phone calls, and repeat several conversations on end. She has also become less able to perform self-care for herself, forgetting to eat, or clean up

I only ever had three grandparents. I had my mom’s parents, and on my dad’s side I just had my grandmother. She went through a very rough divorce when my dad was younger. My dad’s dad never tried to try to be a part of our lives, so we didn’t try either. After elementary school, I didn’t get to see my grandmother as often. I was starting to get a lot busier with school and sports. A couple of years have gone by, and I am still very busy, but I have always tried my hardest to make sure I still spend some time with her. In my eighth-grade year of school, I found out that she was diagnosed with dementia. “There are an estimated 24 million people living with some sort of dementia worldwide, and yet dementia is one of the least-understood brain disorders” (Shea). I find it crazy that dementia has been around since 1906 and it is one of the least-understood brain disorders in the world. It has

Alzheimer’s is a disease, usually for older people, where you can’t remember much. People who have Alzheimer’s usually experience memory loss, personality changes, difficulty managing daily tasks, and getting lost a lot, sometimes even in their own house. This is a very hard disease to deal with, even for the people around. It can be very stressful, and time consuming. It takes a lot of patience to try to help someone with Alzheimer’s.