Hello,
My lovely Mum, aged 59 was diagnosed with early onset in February. Now that someone has said the words "Mum has Alzheimer's" lots of little things that she has done over the years finally make sense. Mum's memory isn't too bad at the moment, she goes through phases of forgetting small things, nothing major. Where the disease is winning the battle is her speech and her awareness of what things are. For example, she knows that I drive a car, and she knows what one is - Alzheimer's has removed her ability to know how to get in it and she will often just open the car door and get out, leaving the door open as she has lost the ability to know that she should close it.
Mum's speech is bad, she forgets the word she wants to say and get's all jumbled up. She also struggles to write without great concentration - it took her an hour to write her Mum's mothers day card.
What breaks my heart though is that she is so scared of new things now and doesn't want to leave the house. She is petrified of being lost and will not do anything new by herself. I don't want her to feel like this so I have now reduced my hours at work so that I can see her once a week for a full day and take her to the places that she needs to go.
I just feel so very sad and constantly worry about her. Mum lives by herself and I live 45 miles away. She has her parents close by and they keep an eye on her but I'm just very scared - can anyone offer help, advice or information on what might happen next?
x
My lovely Mum, aged 59 was diagnosed with early onset in February. Now that someone has said the words "Mum has Alzheimer's" lots of little things that she has done over the years finally make sense. Mum's memory isn't too bad at the moment, she goes through phases of forgetting small things, nothing major. Where the disease is winning the battle is her speech and her awareness of what things are. For example, she knows that I drive a car, and she knows what one is - Alzheimer's has removed her ability to know how to get in it and she will often just open the car door and get out, leaving the door open as she has lost the ability to know that she should close it.
Mum's speech is bad, she forgets the word she wants to say and get's all jumbled up. She also struggles to write without great concentration - it took her an hour to write her Mum's mothers day card.
What breaks my heart though is that she is so scared of new things now and doesn't want to leave the house. She is petrified of being lost and will not do anything new by herself. I don't want her to feel like this so I have now reduced my hours at work so that I can see her once a week for a full day and take her to the places that she needs to go.
I just feel so very sad and constantly worry about her. Mum lives by herself and I live 45 miles away. She has her parents close by and they keep an eye on her but I'm just very scared - can anyone offer help, advice or information on what might happen next?
x