Hello Everyone!
My Dad had Alzheimer's and died in February 2007 yet I still like to pop in to find out how all the TP family are getting on. Recently I have had cause to use TP for another reason.
My Mum was Dad's Carer and even though in her eighties, she was still as bright as a button and as sharp as a pin! In January this year (2008) Mum contracted pneumonia, then she had a stroke (and also later we found out - a small heart attack) and had to be rushed to hospital. After a week of thinking we would lose her, she started to pull through, the consultant said she is a miracle! Our miracle is now at home, she has lost her speech and much of her vitality but still understands us very well and can sing words to songs much to her own amazement!
During these last couple of months I have been using TP as a rich source of information with regard to my Mum's situation. I didn't necessarily have to consider some things before because Mum was there to do them for Dad.
Although Mum does not have dementia, a lot of the things my sister and I have gone through are similar to those experienced with Dad: the frightening feeling of losing a parent, the emotional roller-coaster at each visit, the struggle not to expect ALL the staff to be completely and totally sympathetic, sadness at losing parts of a parent (speech, being mentally less alert and physically less active), the worry of how that parent would be when they came out of hospital, (and how they would be cared for), financial arrangements and so on and on and on.
I suppose that somehow I thought most of these things were only associated with dementia - well of course logically I know they're not, but perhaps I just wanted to blame dementia for ALL the problems that we went through with Dad, when in fact most of them are things that can happen in other illnesses too. Yet, of course, when you add dementia into the mix of all these concerns it greatly magnifies them. Perhaps I'm just stating the obvious here but I hadn't realised this before!
Best wishes and a big thank you (again!) to all on TP,
Hazel.
My Dad had Alzheimer's and died in February 2007 yet I still like to pop in to find out how all the TP family are getting on. Recently I have had cause to use TP for another reason.
My Mum was Dad's Carer and even though in her eighties, she was still as bright as a button and as sharp as a pin! In January this year (2008) Mum contracted pneumonia, then she had a stroke (and also later we found out - a small heart attack) and had to be rushed to hospital. After a week of thinking we would lose her, she started to pull through, the consultant said she is a miracle! Our miracle is now at home, she has lost her speech and much of her vitality but still understands us very well and can sing words to songs much to her own amazement!
During these last couple of months I have been using TP as a rich source of information with regard to my Mum's situation. I didn't necessarily have to consider some things before because Mum was there to do them for Dad.
Although Mum does not have dementia, a lot of the things my sister and I have gone through are similar to those experienced with Dad: the frightening feeling of losing a parent, the emotional roller-coaster at each visit, the struggle not to expect ALL the staff to be completely and totally sympathetic, sadness at losing parts of a parent (speech, being mentally less alert and physically less active), the worry of how that parent would be when they came out of hospital, (and how they would be cared for), financial arrangements and so on and on and on.
I suppose that somehow I thought most of these things were only associated with dementia - well of course logically I know they're not, but perhaps I just wanted to blame dementia for ALL the problems that we went through with Dad, when in fact most of them are things that can happen in other illnesses too. Yet, of course, when you add dementia into the mix of all these concerns it greatly magnifies them. Perhaps I'm just stating the obvious here but I hadn't realised this before!
Best wishes and a big thank you (again!) to all on TP,
Hazel.