Posted 5-7-19
Alzheimer’s and related dementias are a really cruddy set of conditions. (2019 Understatement Sentence of the Year nominee!) The path will vary depending on the type, the parts of the brain affected, the previous health of the patient and other factors, but the end result, as of 5-7-2019 is death…mercifully.
The end.
(Wow Mark…thank you for the positive, uplifting tone there, big guy! I will go back to cat videos now!)
Don’t go…be patient. 😉
I was thinking last night as I made the hour jaunt home from seeing mom, like I am wont to do. I pretty much just think most of the time as I drive. Maybe a tad of self-conversation and a sprinkle of prayer mixed in? Anyway, I was kind of vegging along a little, driving on autopilot about a mile from home when it happened: a squirrel started crossing the really wide 3-lane street that is perpendicular to my road. I could see this little, darling tree rat coming a good 50 yards away and thought to myself two things: Why isn’t he tight-roping like his little friends do above the road? If I could do that, I totally would; and secondly, is this little turd really going to try to beat me across the road? We are on a collision course, after all. Drama built quickly in the 5 seconds it took me to make the call: swerve or slam on the brakes or speed up and try to beat him? Then he stopped about 3 feet shy of my path. Feeling relieved, I gunned it hoping to sneak by… and just then he reconsidered and ran right out in front of my car. 🙁
What happened next reminds me of this outstanding commercial.
Watch the commercial…come on. 🙂
……
The squirrel, for some reason will beyond his little pea-brain intellect, stopped in just the right spot to be straddled by my car…then scampered off after I passed, presumably to get right with Jesus or perhaps have a bottle of fermented beverage made of acorns. So many options, and THAT happened.
“Crossing the road” to try to escape this terrible disease for patients in the memory unit is full of challenges that combined prove more dangerous than my car.
Here are the most common ways the dementia/Alzheimer’s car kills most patients:
Pneumonia. Late-term dementia patients typically have trouble eating and drinking “accurately”, for the lack of a better term, and inhale food or liquid into their lungs (called Dysphagia) , ultimately leading to pneumonia.
Other infections… and related sepsis. Urinary tract infections are common among memory patients since toileting is such a challenge. Brain control over bodily fluids and resistance to baths and hygiene also lead to issues in this realm. Sadly, not being able to self-diagnose fits in this and other causes as well. They simply can’t tell medical professionals what hurts. Poor physical condition and sometimes poor nursing leads to bedsores and related infections. Poor oral health issues can also lead to infections that can prove to be fatal.
Falls. Falling causes the downfall and ultimately kills thousands of seniors every year. Alzheimer’s patients, stricken with brain issues hindering balance and stability, are especially at risk to falls. Learning to avoid falling is important for seniors in general, but almost impossible when you have this disease.
Malnutrition and dehydration. Sadly, poor nutrition is a common killer as well. Patients can lose appetite and they can also have such difficulty eating that their appetite become irrelevant. Illnesses and other complications (kidney problems, etc…) can worsen due to poor nutrition as well.
Other. There are a host of other ways it can directly or indirectly kill you, whether it be by killing automatic processes in your body or by contributing to heart disease or diabetes due to lifestyle/ lack of ability to exercise or by increasing stroke risk. There is a stinking Autobahn of cars waiting to end the life of a patient. 🙁
This list is part of what makes the disease family so hard to treat and why it leads to so much uncertainty.
So, what on God’s green Earth are we as caregivers to do?
Guide them.
Advocate for them.
Love them.
Help them keep busy and “happy”. Find ways they can help the nurses, such as folding clothes or the like. Help their family too.
Play music from their prime.
Be their bridge between them and their medical team. You know your loved one better than the doctor. Tell them what you see and hear. Something different? Shout it out until they act.
Read to them.
Pray for them.
Do art with them.
In short, walk them across the street as best you can. We can’t stop the car, but we can do our best for them in the time they have left… and hopefully stall long enough for a cure. If not, we walk them home safely and eternally.
#EndALZ
I gave you more tools than normal inside of the links throughout this piece. I hope they help. I learn every day and I hope you do too.
Need some encouragement? David Phelps gave me some this week in the concert I saw him in this week with this piece called Fly Again. Enjoy. 🙂
Update: Mom was good yesterday. We had a nice visit. One of my favorite Sweet 17ers, the Wild Buffalo I will call her, fell and broke her wrist but won’t keep her cloth brace on and will now need a plaster one. She forgets every 15 minutes (the length of her virus-caused lack of memory) what happened…and asks….over and over, with pain. Stinkin’ disease. 🙁