Posted on 08/22/2012 5:45:56 AM PDT by grundle
This past weekend was my Nana’s birthday. She turned 76.
A great woman!
My mom had 4 kids, a single mother, and couldn’t afford the bills. Without ever complaining my Nana took me all to herself. She taught me so much! When I was learning to read and write she would open the bible. Most nights we would read and write scripture! Others we would sit and watch TV on her only couch, while eating cheese and crackers. She made my childhood! I was given the chance to be a kid only because of her. If I was ever in trouble she was always there to solve my every problem. When I pray today, and I can’t find the words I pray today, and I can’t find the words to say my pain, I can remember my Nana praying “God you know my pain, I give it to you”. Now I see how hard that prayer truly is. She lived scripture out for me day after day!
My fondest memory of my Nana was at a Billy Ray concert! This little old woman stood in line to shake his hand for an hour. Then, she stood there! The guard told her a thousand times to move, but she didn’t budge! Soon they had to move him to a safer location. When he left my 60 year old Nana sat in his seat and wiggled around like a obsessed 16 year old.
Now, I’am 21, married, and very busy. My Nana today lives in a nursing home. She has Alzheimer. That is one of the saddest disease you can ever have! You know it’s going to kill you and your family mentally and physically and there is nothing you can do about it. You watch your loved one forget to eat. Some stories we’ve heard many patients forget how to eat, so they get are forced to get fed by a tube.
Slowly, the family emotionally dies. The same woman that wiped my butt now has forgotten how to clean herself up to get ready for the day. My Nana no longer knows how to spell her name. Ain’t that crazy, she held the pencil for me as i learnt to sketch every letter. Her memories come and go. If It’s sunny and beautiful outside she can remember anything. During bad weather it’s hard to even get her to respond to questions.
Before she went to the “home” I use to go see her at least every other day. I would spend the night with her and talk for hours. One day though something changed. Something that I still fear to the day. She was acting very distracted, like she didn’t know what was going on. Her lips were bleeding, hands shaking, and you could smell the lack of shower. I cringed, my teeth were shaking! I was completely scared. I didn’t know what to do. After , that I was crying for an hour in the bathroom! She couldn’t remember how to put her shoes on she just kept touching them like they were a new computer and she didn’t know what to do with them. I put them on her feet and carried her the best i could to the car.
I hid my tears behind sun glasses, but my Nana knew my secret. She patted my arm and gently said, “I’ll be OK”. I never want to see her like this again. My fear of her disease limits my visits. The woman that asks, “who are you”? That can’t be my Nana.
Yay, it’s your new favorite blog. Again.
That’s nice....I should tell you all about my father....one in a million...but ...something like that belongs on facebook.
Very sad. My grandmother had alzheimer at a very early age (only 64). This was back in the late 70s when it was referred more as dementia. It’s a cruel disease (right up there with ALS). She went from a vibrant lady (vacations, dancing, golf) to an empty lost soul, totally unaware of her surroundings, within a year. This was before all of today’s medicines which can delay the severe onsets a bit.
This little old woman stood in line to shake his hand for an hour
and old Billy Ray's hand got real, real tired
That is one of the biggest understatements ever uttered.
My Mother had Alzheimer’s and she first showed advance symptoms when she was 75. She was diagnosed when she was 77. She lived to be 86! My father and I had to take care of her all those years. I lived in another city and slowly the time I had to spend taking care of her and overseeing people to come in to take of her took over my life — I was the only surviving son (I had no sisters and my brother had died before Mom got sick).
My Dad was totally against her going into a nursing home and so I kept them at home until my Dad had to go into a nursing home. They lived 1 year and 9 months in the nursing home and died within 20 days of one another last year. My Mother’s long decline was a constant source of sorrow and pain.
Many of my relatives on both sides of the family helped me through this and that was an unexpected bonus. Alzheimer’s is without doubt the worst disease there is. Nothing else comes close. It’s a heart-breaker. Even though I endured an enormous burden, I am grateful I was able to do what I could to help them through their final years and days.
My heart goes out to you and I wish you the best.
When I was at work I was walking to the back of the store when an older woman approached me. She grabbed my arm and asked me for help. She looked terrified. I asked how I could be of assistance and she asked me how to get out of the store. She said she was lost and couldn’t find the doors which were a few steps away.
She had such a blank look on her face, it scared me. I took her hand and we went to a manager. I told the manager that something was wrong and I thought the woman had alzheimers and was lost. We comforted her because even when she saw the doors she forgot she wanted to leave, We wondered if she lived alone, we didn’t know at that time..
The police were called and they said they would help her. We couldn’t just turn her out without trying to help.
Come to find out she had walked out of her nursing home in one of her lucid moments, and then got scared. Her family has since placed her in a better facility. I cried so hard for her. This really traumatized me. My heart breaks for anyone going through this. God bless these elderly children.
We had to put my mother in a home after years of trying care for her. Every time I walked in, some older woman - never a man for some reason - would always ask me for help getting them out of the place.
It is a sad time.
It is so very sad. What a horrible thing, to forget most of your life. My heart bleeds for the families going through this.
My mother was in a nursing home and she used to tell my sister to say hello to her friends (me and my niece). She didn’t remember my sister either. She was 92 and was in her second childhood. When she was lucid ahe feared death greatly. She would have panic attacks, then dementia would set in and she would quiet down.
The Lord came and took her quietly in her sleep. In His infinite wisdom and mercy He knew her fear, and conquered it. She’s been in Heaven since 2007 God bless her.
Thank you Lord for your love and mercy.
As I write this, I am at my mother’s and stepfather’s house. My stepfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s several years ago. I take care of him Monday thru Friday while my mother is at work; we don’t want to put him in a nursing home, and so far, it’s not necessary. I completely understand everything that you’re going thru. Alzheimer’s is an absolutely horrible disease. Sending prayers to you and your Nana. Stay strong.
My mother is 92 and in a slow decline. I certainly didn’t expect to be her primary care-giver at 72, a time when I might need some help myself.
But my daughter sent the letter below to me, and I try to read it every day. It helps.
LETTER FROM A MOTHER TO A DAUGHTER AND SONS
“My dear girl and boys”
The day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through.
If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don’t interrupt to say: “You said the same thing a minute ago”... Just listen, please.
Try to remember the times when you were little and I would read the same story night after night until you would fall asleep. When I don’t want to take a bath, don’t be mad and don’t embarrass me. Remember when I had to run after you making excuses and trying to get you to take a shower when you were just a girl/boy?
When you see how ignorant I am when it comes to new technology, give me the time to learn and don’t look at me that way... remember, honey, I patiently taught you how to do many things like eating appropriately, getting dressed, combing your hair and dealing with life’s issues every day...
the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If I occasionally lose track of what we’re talking about, give me the time to remember, and if I can’t, don’t be nervous, impatient or arrogant. Just know in your heart that the most important thing for me is to be with you.
And when my old, tired legs don’t let me move as quickly as before, give me your hand the same way that I offered mine to you when you first walked. When those days come, don’t feel sad... just be with me, and understand me while I get to the end of my life with love. I’ll cherish and thank you for the gift of time and joy we shared.
With a big smile and the huge love I’ve always had for you, I just want to say, I love you... my darling daughter and sons.
For the last three and one half years my wife of 54 years has been going through the same thing.
She also just had her 76th birthday last Sunday (Aug.19th)
After keeping foster children (11 total) over a period of 8 years, before we had 3 children of our own.
Some days she is cheerful and smiling, but on most days she does not reconize our children and grandchildren.
Thanks for sharing your article!
Niacidamide For Alzheimer’s - google it
GOD BLESS YOU!!!! Your devotion to your parents and their wishes brought tears to my eyes.
My fear of her disease limits my visits.
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Please do not let the fact that she does not know you keep you from visiting her. It is not about you; it is about her and the good you do for her with your presence and love, whether or not she knows you.
My mother did not know her children for the last 2 years or so of her life, but I believe she did benefit from our loving care in her home.
My heart goes out to you. Prayers up.
Lithium Orotate for Alzheimers....
http://tahomaclinicblog.com/lithium-the-misunderstood-mineral-part-1/
Gunner! Lighten up on the guy, just for a day!
He’s still not composed himself since the “trousers down, monkeys running loose” episode at the lab.
I noticed the same thing when I first read it - about shaking his hand for an hour. But what the writer lacks in grammar skills, she more than makes up for with her spirit, emotion, love, and compassion.
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