Hi there, am new to the forum. My mum has just had a diagnosis of Alzheimer's in the past week or so. It wasn't a surprise to myself or Dad as we had noticed signs for nearly the past two years. As my grandmother (Mum's Mum) also suffered from the disease for the last 15 years of her life, we are all too familiar with the signs and symptoms. But it has taken us nearly two years to be able to get Mum to agree to seek help for her 'memory problems' and has been a difficult journey.
As a teenager I helped Mum to care for my Grandmother who lived with us for about 6 years, until it became too much for us and reluctantly we had to move her into a residential care home.
Now that Mum has been diagnosed too, I am left overwhelmed with the prospect of going through it all again.
But my main problem at the moment is knowing how to discuss and acknowledge the condition with Mum. She is not sleeping well, and is obviously very upset and down about the diagnosis. The problem is she still remembers well the awfulness that my Grandmother went through and she said to me the other night that her biggest fear has always been ending up like her. And that she'd rather not be alive than go through that. And frankly I don't blame her one bit. Seeing what my Grandmother went through and how she was robbed of her dignity by this hideous disease makes me feel that I don't want Mum to suffer the same either.
What on earth do I say to her? There's no way I can make it sound ok because its very not ok. I just don't know what to say when she says she's worrying about the future. After all she knows what's coming better than most.
As a teenager I helped Mum to care for my Grandmother who lived with us for about 6 years, until it became too much for us and reluctantly we had to move her into a residential care home.
Now that Mum has been diagnosed too, I am left overwhelmed with the prospect of going through it all again.
But my main problem at the moment is knowing how to discuss and acknowledge the condition with Mum. She is not sleeping well, and is obviously very upset and down about the diagnosis. The problem is she still remembers well the awfulness that my Grandmother went through and she said to me the other night that her biggest fear has always been ending up like her. And that she'd rather not be alive than go through that. And frankly I don't blame her one bit. Seeing what my Grandmother went through and how she was robbed of her dignity by this hideous disease makes me feel that I don't want Mum to suffer the same either.
What on earth do I say to her? There's no way I can make it sound ok because its very not ok. I just don't know what to say when she says she's worrying about the future. After all she knows what's coming better than most.