• What are
  FAVORITES?
  Bookmark any page of our site conveniently in this one area.
  
  Sign In or Register so you can take advantage of all of the features of After Fifty Living

My aunt was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s some years ago. It did not come as a shock to us, but we tried to fool ourselves for quite a few years before the diagnosis came.  She is a Holocaust survivor, and like my parents, lived through a hellish nightmare during World War II and survived.  Her life, as with the rest of the survivors, was not easy, but she built her existence with courage and not a drop of resentment as to the hand that life had dealt her.

She married, but was unable to have children, and worked hard as a menial worker, as she didn’t have the luxury of benefiting from higher education or any vocational training. In those days one struggled to provide food and clothing for herself and her husband, there was no time for training.

In her early 70s she lost her husband, who suffered from Parkinson’s for many years.  During all the years that she took care of her husband, all our attention was directed toward him.  We all were worried about him, and followed the stages of his illness.  None of us paid much attention to the telltale signs that were becoming more and more pronounced in her behavior.  Being as intelligent as she was, and maybe sensing that something was wrong with her, she hid a lot of signs.

She also compensated in very brave ways to make her confusion not as easily detectable.  She began to stumble while speaking, searching for words, stopping in mid sentence, hesitating, using wrong words that were similar, but different than the meaning she was trying to get across.       She used humor to cover the shortcomings.  Yet when visiting her and spending more time with her than I usually did in a short phone conversation, I started to be aware of the change in the pattern of her speech.  I began to realize that she, too, was aware of the situation, and was trying even harder to compensate for it. I alerted her personal physician, suggesting that maybe some evaluations should be done and precautionary measures should be put in place.    
                                                                        

She fought us tooth and nail; “I am okay, just forgetting some things, and it is natural for people my age” she would say. Even with some medical intervention, her condition had progressed rapidly. She began to wander in the neighborhood, left empty pots on a lit stove, and it’s only by God’s mercy that her house did not go up in flames.

My aunt was always involved in her community, volunteering, or partaking in social activities in the local center for senior citizens.  She always loved art, sewing, and embroidering, and her work was displayed at the center.

When she became cognizant of her failing memory, forgetting the names of the others in the center and forgetting what she should do with her project midway through it, she began to feel very uncomfortable, and refused to continue attending.  This was very disconcerting to all of us, because she became reclusive, anti-social, and depressed.

She also started to lose weight.  It was time to step in. With the help of a local agency, we brought in a home aide for eight hours a day, on the weekends relatives rotated the responsibilities of her care.  We found a different senior center, with a program that was geared for people with Alzheimer’s.  She did not know the people there, which made it easier for her; she did not have to justify the fact that she did not remember their names.

Many of the activities were subtle:  exercises in memory rejuvenation and establishing tools and tricks to help the participants to remember and function in the best of their ability in spite of the illness that was robbing them of their memories.  Specialists in the treatment of people with Alzheimer’s provided much needed help and guidance to make the home geared to promote normalization and a sense of familiarity.`

When we visit with my aunt, we introduce ourselves by name, to eliminate the need for her to guess who the person in front of her is.  The key is to make her life safe, comfortable, and full of love, which she had always bestowed in great amounts on all of us when she could.

As we know, although dementia is a physical illness, it manifests itself in behavioral patterns.  To establish a list of guidelines, to help you recognize the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the following signs may be helpful:

a.       Short term memory loss

b.       Difficulties retaining new information

c.       Lost or misplaced objects

d.       Neglecting household chores

e.       Poor personal hygiene

f.        Careless appearance

g.       Unsafe decisions                                                               

h.       Decrease in language skills

i.        Decreased interest in previous hobbies

j.        Decrease in social interaction

k.       Decrease interest in family and friends

l.        Changes in old habits

 It is hard to watch our parent or a loved one struggling with Alzheimer’s especially as they worsen through each stage.  Each stage presents different sets of problems, which affect each individual differently.  There is a lot of research being done at this time, and we are likely to eventually see new techniques and more accurate diagnosis, as well as better treatment. Who knows?  Maybe the baby boomers will be the beneficiaries of these future breakthroughs.

For more info – www.goldenyearsgolden.com .

**********

About the Author: 

Eva Mor was born in Poland to Holocaust survivors. Both her parents lost most of their immediate family to the Nazis. She was born after the war, and her early childhood was in Poland, after which she immigrated to Israel with her family. Dr. Mor adjusted quickly to her life in Israel and loved it there.

The only thing she missed terribly was not having grandparents. Both sets of her grandparents were killed by the Nazis.  This fact has colored her professional life. After the obligatory military service, in which she served in the Air Force, she came to the United States where she completed all her higher education.  She has since returned to Israel for two years to do epidemiological research for the World Health Organization of the United Nations. She is an epidemiologist and a health care specialist. She also holds a Masters degree in Gerontology and Health Administration.

For the last 23 years Dr. Mor has dedicated her career to bettering the lives of the elderly.  She has done so through work in nursing homes, chronic disease institutions, and acute care hospitals, as well as in home care services. She has been part of planning committees for the improvement of health services for seniors, and has done research to find out what services are available for this specific population, and what should be developed in the future.

 With that in mind Dr. Mor set out to write the book, “MAKING THE GOLDEN YEARS GOLDEN.” The book brings to you, with much love and care, the information you need for yourself and those dear to you, in order to make the golden years truly golden.

www.goldenyearsgolden.com 

Leave a Comment -

Guidelines: We welcome your thoughts, but for the sake of all visitors to AfterFiftyLiving.com, please refrain from the use of obscenities, personal attacks or slurs. All comments are subject to our terms of use and may be removed. Repeat offenders may lose commenting privileges.