I saw an elderly woman not long ago that I was forced to hospitalize. She was (please forgive the jargon/parlance about to ensue) not "oriented to time, person, place or situation".
In other words, she was completely out of it.
Like couldn't tell me her birthday out of it. Couldn't tell me how many children she had out of it. Couldn't tell me what year it was out of it.
Needless to say my assessment with her in particular didn't last very long.
But it rattled me none-the-less. Those kinds of assessments always do. Because here's the skinny: I don't want Alzheimer's. And I don't want anyone in my immediate family to get it. Ever. Furthermore, I cringe when I hear I have to assess any age over about 60 because Alzheimer's or dementia are almost always the culprit. (And yes, there is a difference between the two.) Ready for this delightful news? Only about 5 percent of people between the ages of 64 and 75 have it, but over half of people over 85 have it. So yes, we have all this wondrous technology that prolongs life. But if you can't remember your life in the end, what's the point? Seriously?
It's a horrible, nasty disease--insidious in that you can't diagnose it early, there's no real prevention, only a few drugs available to prolong it, there's no cure, and it's a death sentence not only for the person with it, but for their families as well.
Because I'm here to tell you, I've dealt with those families and God love them, they are strung out by the end stage. The stage where their loved ones start wandering off, have no idea who they are or where they came from, can't remember their wives of 100 years and curse them out regularly to boot. The stage where depression and anxiety have been a way of life for years. The stage where total care is required, which translates into huge expenses for families. Most families I see don't have trust funds at their disposal. Most families I see have utilized all their financial resources to keep granny at home. Not only is there the financial expense of how to pay for said care, there's the emotional trauma--probably the most debilitating of all for families--of making the decision to get full time nursing home care for granny, whose general curmudgeoness caused the fifth baby sitter to up and quit with no warning.
My grandmother has it. I've seen only second hand the family drama that's ensued as a result. She lives hundreds of miles from me and we were never that close in my older childhood and young adult years. Now her mind is gone and the brief windows of lucidity are considered a resounding success.
Professionally, all I have at my disposal are useless nods of sympathy and a diagnostic center that offers only days of relief for the families whom I see. I guess sometimes that's enough of a booster to get them going again. Most times not, though.
It's tragic. ->
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tXCM/~3/U8Hzc9aIsIY/alzheimers-thanks-but-ill-pass.html
Posted
1 Jun 2009 6:44 PM
by
Trench Warfare
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