Dealing With Alzheimer People?

[WebBangkok]

Hi,

After my house was flooded I am renting a place in Chon Buri for a month, we also have with us my wife's grandfather.

He has Alzheimer's and is 94 years old. He is a great guy and healthy as an Ox but his illness is really starting to get to me.

He keeps on turning the fan and TV off every 10 minutes. We are just sitting back enjoying the fan and TV and EVERY 10 minutes he tries to turn both off. At first it was funny but now he is being a royal pain in the arse. He has already attempted to turn both off about 10 times this morning.

Anyone got any tips or dealt with anyone with this illness?

Thanks

[meatboy]

poor guy why not buy him is own telle.and fan.

[simon43]

Put a large sticker on the TV and fan on/off switch. Label it (in Thai) ON-OFF, (as opposed to the correct OFF-ON).

Sorry - shouldn't joke about this. Think what you will be like if/when you reach 94 years old

Simon

[wamberal]

One important thing to remember in dealing with people suffering from Alzheimers, is not to argue with them, or disagree with them, under any circumstances.

You are smarter than him, all you have to do is work out strategies that allow him to live the remaining years of his life as comfortably and happily as he can.

One terrific anecdote springs to mind. A woman suffering from Alzheimers was bugging the life out of the staff in the nursing home that she was living in, asking them, "when does my bus come, I have to go home." This sort of request is not unusual. (I was visiting a friend a couple of weeks ago in a nursing home, and his neighbour knocked on his door, and asked him whether he had seen the children - he just said to her, maybe they have gone home, why don't you go back to your place and wait for them. That settled her down nicely. He is a medical practitioner, incidentally, so knows how to deal with older people - it would have been counter-productive to have spoken to her logically......)

Anyway, the clever response that the nursing home people thought of for the woman who asked about the bus, was to build a simple bus stop in the garden, with a seat and a sign. Apparently, several of the residents enjoy going there, and waiting for their bus home.

I hope this helps. Some lateral thinking is called for. Remember, he is not acting logically, and he is certainly not trying to annoy anybody.

[Sheryl]

Some insensitive replies have been deleted.

www.alz.org us a GREAT resource for famiky members of people with AD

My father has Alzheimers and I was his sole caretaker for a week that felt like an eternity last summer while my mother was havung surgery so I know how hard it can be.

An important thing to understand is that people with this disease have NO short-term memory. None. Which also means they can't form new long-term memories, although they retain the ones they already had before the disease, at least until very advanced stages.

Hence they're fine "in the moment" i.e. with anything that doesn't require them to recall recent events, and fine talking about the (far) past, so much so that it is easy to forget there's anything wrong with someone in the early or mid stages of Alzheimers.... but they will not remember anything they or told or that happened in the recent past. Even 5 minutes latter, it's gone.

Try to remember that and deal with him only "in the moment". Don't waste your breath trying to get him to remember anything as he simply can't.

With regard to the TV, you can explain that you are waytching u=it but in 5 minutes he'll have no memory of being told this. You may dio better watching the TV in a different room if that is possible.

I found with my father that distracting him with things he likes to do was helpful in preventing interruptions during times I needed to myself. In his case this was endless reruns of "Seinfeld" and ghastly tapes of 1940-50's music. Over and over and over again, since of course he didn't remember what he had just seen or heard.

[teflonjon]

I have a similar situation. Patience is the only thing that will keep you from going crazy.

[Payboy]

Dunno about the fan, but you could take the batteries out of the TV remote.

[craigt3365]

Great one Sheryl. My mother has dementia and it is blossoming into Alzheimer. I live with her 3 months of the year and have a caregiver the rest of the time.

She feeds her dog right from the table off the plate she is eating out of. Sharing a spoon, a bit of food, everything. The dog even climbs up on the table.

Then she refuses to put the dishes in the dishwasher and does them by hand in cold water...and she is 90% blind, so can't see if she is doing a good job or not. Friends are now hesitant of eating anything here off plates!!!

I tell her not to do this and 5 minutes later she is doing it again. I remind her not to do it and she gets mad at herself that she forgot not to feed the dog! It happens all the time, so now we just have to be with her when she eats and watch her very closely.

It's a tough thing to deal with. I try to remind myself this is my mother, who wiped my butt when I was a baby and took care of me. Now, it's my turn. She's the baby.

Best of luck.

[jaideeguy]

I second Sheryl's tips, especially about contacting www.alz.org They have a 24 hr hotline that can help you with emergency situations that will come up and a caregiver's peer to peer forum that got me thru my 92 yr old Pop's alz/dem. i couldn't have gotten along without their support.

http://alzheimers.infopop.cc/eve/forums

best of luck.....