Dementia and it's effects

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Kay got up today very disoriented.  She said, "Doyal, I have to talk to you".  When she said this to her kids when they were growing up you knew a dressing down was coming.  But when she says this to me in this day and age I know she has a problem of one kind or another.  She wants an answer.  So I proceeded to try to find out what was bothering her.  First she asked if I was "Doyal" which of course I told, her with a hollow space in the pit of my stomach.    Then during our conversation she  wanted to know who she was,.  Now this is a real shock when she doesn't remember who she is.  She told me during our conversation that she could not remember anything.  That is what was really bothering her which was she recognized her memory was going.  So I decided that for an answer I might as well tell her outright that she has dementia and can't remember things. I decided it was safe enough because she would not be able remember anyway.  So I just went ahead and told her her memory was going bad.  So that created the question in her mind as to how long this had been coming on.  The answer being it began years ago. When dementia sufferers get on a question like this they ask it over and over again.  But there is nothing to do but keep answering it.  This situation seems to be coming more frequent lately but during the day she may get better.  But that is a reminder of what is coming. So she is at the point where she knows some things but cant figure out the answer.  I don't know what is coming.

I heard about the 94 year old guy who finally realized that  he was unable to take care of his wife any longer and finally had her put in a rest home.  I have not come to that stage yet. I am only 88.
 Someone who does not have a personal interest in someone can not provide the loving care that someone who has a personal interest in an individual does.  They do not know what pains and aches may be going  on because the dementia sufferer can not tell them. They can not express it. That is one of the signs of dementia.  Like heading for another room then forgetting why you went there. But that condition is  not the onset of dementia. I did that years ago.  A doctor can check if dementia is in it's early stages by having a patient repeat backwards 5 number like 5,10,7, 65, 2 and so on.  Try it sometime.  But don't panic. Changing the way you concentrate can help you remember the correct sequence. 


More tomorrow probably

Doyal

Enough for today, But I will continue updating the progression of dementia as it moves along.  

Take a look at Bills war. His widow created a story of his time with the 39th FA in WW2. Find it at