Hello. I just joined this. My username is my cat, who died a couple of days before Christmas, so I guess I am feeling kind of maudlin.
I found this site while looking for information about Alzheimer's - what can be expected in the progression of the disease. My father has it, he's had it for a few years & he's getting worse, of course, but slowly.
I guess my father is somewhere in the middle stages. I am not taking care of him, I live in another state & just visit for a few days about every six weeks. Last summer I stayed for a month because he broke his leg & was in a rehab facility because he couldn't walk at all. Every day he'd wake up mad that he couldn't go home, he'd forget he had a broken leg, I'd tell him the story of how he broke it. Then the next day the same thing all over again, him ranting about how he is going home right now, me explaining that he can't. I know you all know about this kind of thing.
He is married (my mother died in 1985) to a really nice & loving person who takes great care of him even though she herself is completely stressed out & not in good health. Fortunately they have aides that come in for 12 hours a day & this is all covered by insurance! That part is amazing. No one has insurance like that anymore.
One sad thing is that there is not much for my father to do. His main interests were reading & playing golf. He can't play golf because he has messed up knees & although he can still read, he doesn't remember the plot when he puts the book down so he has to keep starting over. I suggested he read short stories, & bought him some books of them, but he won't. He doesn't like them. Like everyone else in my family, he's stubborn.
It is so sad to watch someone slip away. I know you all know. He hates having things done for him but there is a lot he can't do himself, partly because of Alzheimer's & partly because of physical problems. He gets tired easily, he sleeps a lot. I wish he could get interested in watching television, or listening to music, or anything, but he won't. He wanted a dog but my stepmother said no. They can't really take care of it. She bought him this mechanical puppy. It looks like a real one & it has a battery in it so its side moves in & out like it's breathing. It just lies on this little sheepskin pad & breathes, really looking like a sleeping dog. My father actually likes it though. But it's sad. Just sitting in a chair all day reading bits of newspaper, thinking of all his friends who died in the war (he talks about this a lot), occasionally petting a mechanical dog.
And of course it will all get worse.
Thanks for listening to me.
I found this site while looking for information about Alzheimer's - what can be expected in the progression of the disease. My father has it, he's had it for a few years & he's getting worse, of course, but slowly.
I guess my father is somewhere in the middle stages. I am not taking care of him, I live in another state & just visit for a few days about every six weeks. Last summer I stayed for a month because he broke his leg & was in a rehab facility because he couldn't walk at all. Every day he'd wake up mad that he couldn't go home, he'd forget he had a broken leg, I'd tell him the story of how he broke it. Then the next day the same thing all over again, him ranting about how he is going home right now, me explaining that he can't. I know you all know about this kind of thing.
He is married (my mother died in 1985) to a really nice & loving person who takes great care of him even though she herself is completely stressed out & not in good health. Fortunately they have aides that come in for 12 hours a day & this is all covered by insurance! That part is amazing. No one has insurance like that anymore.
One sad thing is that there is not much for my father to do. His main interests were reading & playing golf. He can't play golf because he has messed up knees & although he can still read, he doesn't remember the plot when he puts the book down so he has to keep starting over. I suggested he read short stories, & bought him some books of them, but he won't. He doesn't like them. Like everyone else in my family, he's stubborn.
It is so sad to watch someone slip away. I know you all know. He hates having things done for him but there is a lot he can't do himself, partly because of Alzheimer's & partly because of physical problems. He gets tired easily, he sleeps a lot. I wish he could get interested in watching television, or listening to music, or anything, but he won't. He wanted a dog but my stepmother said no. They can't really take care of it. She bought him this mechanical puppy. It looks like a real one & it has a battery in it so its side moves in & out like it's breathing. It just lies on this little sheepskin pad & breathes, really looking like a sleeping dog. My father actually likes it though. But it's sad. Just sitting in a chair all day reading bits of newspaper, thinking of all his friends who died in the war (he talks about this a lot), occasionally petting a mechanical dog.
And of course it will all get worse.
Thanks for listening to me.
