Hi all,
Just decided to join Alzheimer's as a cry for help. My Nan suffers with the condition, and it bears a HUGE impact on my life. Nan's condition just before we lost my Grandad in April 05. When he passed away he requested we moved in to care for her, we did on on September 4th 06, 5 days before my 18th birthday. The house we now have is quite some amount smaller, it's a 3 bedroom house, but my parents are in the Master room, my brother in the small back bedroom and I am in the the front bedroom with my Nan. That in it's own right I was reluctant about, I love rock music, lounging about on my bed with my laptop, trying out fashions and doing all the usual teenage things. Obviously my Nan would sooner go to bed as and when she wants, listen to music of her generation etc. I can understand this and I know it's only fair that we should both have a free life. But I'm finding that the only way for me to have time alone is to head down the park or lock myself in the caravan, and with Winter settling in that's non-optional! I've one friend who's been my rock through it all but now he's got a job I rarely see him, so I'm back to wear I was. When we meet at his flat now she constantly talks about her ex partners/husband, and I've recently started to surrender and relate that when she 'calls my friend my 'boyfriend' I know who she's talking about. Also my Nan seems to think I can do things I can't, a few times she's asked me to go on stupidly long walks with her, or do something tricky I can't do. May I add I myself am disabled. My brother and myself respectively are typical teenagers at the end of the day, but my brother has started smoking to relieve his stress and I myself have found other alternatives to freedom. When my friend visits we are very close (99% of people say we're dating) and she's often looking at us, not that it scares me but I feel very intimidated by it and it has come to the point now he'll only hug me if we're alone. I've also started a healthier lifestyle but she regularly offers me crisps and sweets, I always refuse her kindly but she regularly makes hurtful comments, saying she's glad I'm not her daughter, or about if I drank more water and less squash my acne may go (this in fact isn't true, my acne is hereditory on my father's side). If I switch my mobile on to read texts she makes comments about me having 'something wrong' and 'needing my head read'. Or she complains that my music is too loud, and not liking it (note: since moving my music has never been on full or anywhere further than a third of the way around the dial). I used to talk to her a lot, now I've found that she's only ever around me to complain about me, my life, my parents (either my dad never being about [he is, he's disabled and a lovely man, they both used to get on very well until her condition struck] or nobody helping my mum [her daughter]). My Nan is just about ruling my life, I rarely get out alone as my Nan either wants to now where I'm going, or wants to tag along too. Or I'll get multiple questions when I get back. I've been spending megabucks on clothes as in recent months being a bit dressier has made me feel better, but this has set me into more trouble in the way of finances with my parents. I feel as though all my escapes are being taken from me. Also my Nan's dog, Jack Russell Cross, 3 years old, sweet as sweet can be. Until there's food about, then he turns. And 9 times out of 10 he attacks our collie. This for me is severely upsetting, our collie and myself are close, when I'm upset he can tell, when he's had a gutsful of her dog I can see it in his eyes, we communicate with eye contact. He'll look at her dog then back at me and I know the problem. However Nan's dog gets treated extremely unfairly and this causes his aggression, he sits on her sofa (understandable, he's her companion) but he uses it as a height advantage over our two) she hand-feeds him tit-bits behind my parents back and pampers him uncontrollably, he's severely overweight for his size and very tempermental. We invested in a spray collar to control his behaviour to our two which she rips off the second my parents step out. If my parents are out and she's left with me and my brother she gets severely aggressive to us, this morning for example I was sorting some money matters and she threw the paper down and said throwing it 'passes time', just because I was dealing with matters.
I'm sorry to all that this post is so jumbled and illogical, I did not write this as a autobiography, I wrote this as a cry for help from a disabled teen who is finding as
though Altzeimer's is taking over her own problems, I was told to be a little more tolerant to my Nan, but I myself have psychological and emotional difficulties and find her strange behaviour hard to deal with, I know my family do but in my circumstances I see that, day and night, Alzheimer's is running my life. Please, please can someone offer me some guidance as to how I can get my life back on track. Regularly when mum asks how I'm finding things my response is usually 'surviving'.
Thankyou for reading this
Helen
NB. Just in typing this Nan saw me on the sight and requested qhy I was on here, since telling her I needed some information to help me understand she hasn't said a word to me, but as usual it's the cold think atmosphere when she's upset/angry with one of us.
Just decided to join Alzheimer's as a cry for help. My Nan suffers with the condition, and it bears a HUGE impact on my life. Nan's condition just before we lost my Grandad in April 05. When he passed away he requested we moved in to care for her, we did on on September 4th 06, 5 days before my 18th birthday. The house we now have is quite some amount smaller, it's a 3 bedroom house, but my parents are in the Master room, my brother in the small back bedroom and I am in the the front bedroom with my Nan. That in it's own right I was reluctant about, I love rock music, lounging about on my bed with my laptop, trying out fashions and doing all the usual teenage things. Obviously my Nan would sooner go to bed as and when she wants, listen to music of her generation etc. I can understand this and I know it's only fair that we should both have a free life. But I'm finding that the only way for me to have time alone is to head down the park or lock myself in the caravan, and with Winter settling in that's non-optional! I've one friend who's been my rock through it all but now he's got a job I rarely see him, so I'm back to wear I was. When we meet at his flat now she constantly talks about her ex partners/husband, and I've recently started to surrender and relate that when she 'calls my friend my 'boyfriend' I know who she's talking about. Also my Nan seems to think I can do things I can't, a few times she's asked me to go on stupidly long walks with her, or do something tricky I can't do. May I add I myself am disabled. My brother and myself respectively are typical teenagers at the end of the day, but my brother has started smoking to relieve his stress and I myself have found other alternatives to freedom. When my friend visits we are very close (99% of people say we're dating) and she's often looking at us, not that it scares me but I feel very intimidated by it and it has come to the point now he'll only hug me if we're alone. I've also started a healthier lifestyle but she regularly offers me crisps and sweets, I always refuse her kindly but she regularly makes hurtful comments, saying she's glad I'm not her daughter, or about if I drank more water and less squash my acne may go (this in fact isn't true, my acne is hereditory on my father's side). If I switch my mobile on to read texts she makes comments about me having 'something wrong' and 'needing my head read'. Or she complains that my music is too loud, and not liking it (note: since moving my music has never been on full or anywhere further than a third of the way around the dial). I used to talk to her a lot, now I've found that she's only ever around me to complain about me, my life, my parents (either my dad never being about [he is, he's disabled and a lovely man, they both used to get on very well until her condition struck] or nobody helping my mum [her daughter]). My Nan is just about ruling my life, I rarely get out alone as my Nan either wants to now where I'm going, or wants to tag along too. Or I'll get multiple questions when I get back. I've been spending megabucks on clothes as in recent months being a bit dressier has made me feel better, but this has set me into more trouble in the way of finances with my parents. I feel as though all my escapes are being taken from me. Also my Nan's dog, Jack Russell Cross, 3 years old, sweet as sweet can be. Until there's food about, then he turns. And 9 times out of 10 he attacks our collie. This for me is severely upsetting, our collie and myself are close, when I'm upset he can tell, when he's had a gutsful of her dog I can see it in his eyes, we communicate with eye contact. He'll look at her dog then back at me and I know the problem. However Nan's dog gets treated extremely unfairly and this causes his aggression, he sits on her sofa (understandable, he's her companion) but he uses it as a height advantage over our two) she hand-feeds him tit-bits behind my parents back and pampers him uncontrollably, he's severely overweight for his size and very tempermental. We invested in a spray collar to control his behaviour to our two which she rips off the second my parents step out. If my parents are out and she's left with me and my brother she gets severely aggressive to us, this morning for example I was sorting some money matters and she threw the paper down and said throwing it 'passes time', just because I was dealing with matters.
I'm sorry to all that this post is so jumbled and illogical, I did not write this as a autobiography, I wrote this as a cry for help from a disabled teen who is finding as
though Altzeimer's is taking over her own problems, I was told to be a little more tolerant to my Nan, but I myself have psychological and emotional difficulties and find her strange behaviour hard to deal with, I know my family do but in my circumstances I see that, day and night, Alzheimer's is running my life. Please, please can someone offer me some guidance as to how I can get my life back on track. Regularly when mum asks how I'm finding things my response is usually 'surviving'.
Thankyou for reading this
Helen
NB. Just in typing this Nan saw me on the sight and requested qhy I was on here, since telling her I needed some information to help me understand she hasn't said a word to me, but as usual it's the cold think atmosphere when she's upset/angry with one of us.
