Hi there
My grandmother (who has just turned 80) has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and i am at a bit of loss of what to do. My wife and are are both relatively young (29 and 34) and we are solely responsible for my grandmother's care. Up until recently, she lived with her daughter (my mother) in Scotland. Unfortunately my mum and nan have not always got on and my mum made the living situation very volatile, so much so that my nan had to leave but had nowhere to go. This resulted in me having drive up to Scotland and bring my nan home with me. The rest of my family all live in Scotland, and none were in a position or were willing to help my nan.
After a month or so, we managed to find my nan a flat (assisted living) to live in, and she started to rebuild her life. She found this very stressful as she could not get over how nasty she had been treated by the rest of the family in Scotland, and that she should not being having to start her life again from scratch at 80. While helping her rebuild her life, my wife and i noticed that she was suffering from memory loss, and that she would often repeat herself. Sometimes she would tell us a story, and at the end of it she would loop back to the start and tell us the same thing again and be none the wiser. She would continually ask us the same questions and not realise. She would get muddled up and would often confuse two separate issues and put them together to create a very confusing story. In the 9 months that she has lived there, she has changed her bed 4 times, but only remembers doing this twice. We spoke to the doctor about our concerns, but when the doctor spoke to my nan about it, she played down the situation as she was embarrassed. My nan has always been a very proud women and gets embarrassed very easily.
Despite this, the doctor provided us with the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition, which we carried out, and sent the results back. The doctor then referred her to the memory clinic at Leicester. During the first appointment the nurse tried to carry out General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition, but had to stop early on as my nan was getting very distressed as she did not know the answers to the questions and was getting embarrassed. She was then referred for a MRI scan. Since then my nan has continually worried about the results, and is adamant that no matter what she does not want to end up in a home. My wife and i both work full time, and we tried to get volunteers in to check up on her and spend time with her during the day, however, my nan refused this as again she is a very shy person that does not like to mix. She will not even try any of the local clubs as she is embarrassed.
The results have just come back and it has been confirmed that she does have Alzheimer's. We have not yet told her as we really dont know how too. I know that she will not take the news well and im worried that she will fall into a deep depression. I know that there are drugs that she will get prescribed which will help slow down her decline, but i am really worried that she will not be able to cope. Since her diagnosis my wife and i have been reading up on what is likely to happen and the thought of it terrifies us. Being that she currently refuses helpers to come in to see her, i really dont know how we are going to cope with what may come.
We do not have a big family network around us at present, it is just the two of us and i really do not know where to begin...
My grandmother (who has just turned 80) has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and i am at a bit of loss of what to do. My wife and are are both relatively young (29 and 34) and we are solely responsible for my grandmother's care. Up until recently, she lived with her daughter (my mother) in Scotland. Unfortunately my mum and nan have not always got on and my mum made the living situation very volatile, so much so that my nan had to leave but had nowhere to go. This resulted in me having drive up to Scotland and bring my nan home with me. The rest of my family all live in Scotland, and none were in a position or were willing to help my nan.
After a month or so, we managed to find my nan a flat (assisted living) to live in, and she started to rebuild her life. She found this very stressful as she could not get over how nasty she had been treated by the rest of the family in Scotland, and that she should not being having to start her life again from scratch at 80. While helping her rebuild her life, my wife and i noticed that she was suffering from memory loss, and that she would often repeat herself. Sometimes she would tell us a story, and at the end of it she would loop back to the start and tell us the same thing again and be none the wiser. She would continually ask us the same questions and not realise. She would get muddled up and would often confuse two separate issues and put them together to create a very confusing story. In the 9 months that she has lived there, she has changed her bed 4 times, but only remembers doing this twice. We spoke to the doctor about our concerns, but when the doctor spoke to my nan about it, she played down the situation as she was embarrassed. My nan has always been a very proud women and gets embarrassed very easily.
Despite this, the doctor provided us with the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition, which we carried out, and sent the results back. The doctor then referred her to the memory clinic at Leicester. During the first appointment the nurse tried to carry out General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition, but had to stop early on as my nan was getting very distressed as she did not know the answers to the questions and was getting embarrassed. She was then referred for a MRI scan. Since then my nan has continually worried about the results, and is adamant that no matter what she does not want to end up in a home. My wife and i both work full time, and we tried to get volunteers in to check up on her and spend time with her during the day, however, my nan refused this as again she is a very shy person that does not like to mix. She will not even try any of the local clubs as she is embarrassed.
The results have just come back and it has been confirmed that she does have Alzheimer's. We have not yet told her as we really dont know how too. I know that she will not take the news well and im worried that she will fall into a deep depression. I know that there are drugs that she will get prescribed which will help slow down her decline, but i am really worried that she will not be able to cope. Since her diagnosis my wife and i have been reading up on what is likely to happen and the thought of it terrifies us. Being that she currently refuses helpers to come in to see her, i really dont know how we are going to cope with what may come.
We do not have a big family network around us at present, it is just the two of us and i really do not know where to begin...
