›› Alzheimers
My grandfather on my
dad's side passed away just over a year ago. He developed alzheimers in
his later years. He ended up dying of cancer, but it was the alzheimers
that caused him the worst problems and was the hardest to watch, as his
family.
At first, with the onset of alzheimers, you would just notice little
things. We would find him repeating the same stories over and over
again. Looking back, we felt pretty bad, because we would sometimes
joke about hearing the same old thing again. Once we realized it was
the alzheimers causing this, and not just a fixation on the past, we
quickly realized this was no joking matter.
Sometimes we would go out for lunch with our grandparents. They were
always busy, going here and there and everywhere. And our grandfather
was always the chauffeur. It got pretty scary though, when he'd be
driving through rush hour traffic in Toronto, and suddenly ask where we
were and where we were going. He'd just suddenly draw a blank! It
quickly became obvious that the alzheimers was here to stay and we some
difficulty, my grandmother took over driving, although she hadn't done
it in years.
Near the end, my grandparents moved in with my parents in a cute little
in-law suite. It was just in time. My grandfather got sick very quickly
and the alzheimers strengthened its grip on his mind. Pretty soon, the
only people he would recognize were my grandmother and my parents. He
didn't know who any of the rest of us were. He'd be holding one of my
kids on his lap with absolutely no memory of the child's name or what
relation they were to him. It was really sad.
But then, he'd suddenly have moments of clarity. Every once in a while
he would have a good day, and be so engaging and lively. But then he'd
slump back into his old ways, and the alzheimers would get even worse.
One of the most difficult things about caring for him, was getting him
to bathe. My dad would get angry with him because he would actually
start to smell bad. Finally, my parents got a nurse to come to the
house every day to deal with him, because the problem was too much for
family. Things really went downhill from there. It
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