Mom's good, though heaven knows I'd be reamed out for allowing her to go grey, white really. Her hair, always scrupulously groomed, pageboy style, a study in helmet hair now the long strands rarely trimmed is more likely to be tucked inside her collar as a last bastion of paranoid protectionism.
This election year's hyper emotional and often vitriolic rhetoric reminded me of Mom, not such a strange notion with Alzheimers. It is true that this disease will dissolve the memories of family ties and if allowed, the ties themselves as in my case. It doesn't have to have that effect if caregivers and family remember that memories may go but emotion remains. The loved one feels, it's as simple as that. Mom feels love, fear, happiness, humor, hatred, anger or frankly, fakery. The link below, describes the stages of Alzheimers and in truth, I learned to wear colors she loves when I visit, to speak kindly while looking in her eyes and engaging with her. I the disease has made her hyper perceptive on a more basic level to her emotional side. She hears inner voices, constantly involved in conversations with the "air conditioning people,' as we call them. They tell her whether it's safe to go with me to the doctor, whether it's ok to eat something that's unfamiliar or whether the person who just stopped her wanderings is that "bad person" to be avoided or someone, that "lady" who represents a treat and a caring ear. It reminds me how much this disease resembles a reverse aging process that gets Mom as close to an infant mentally as possible. Your baby cries for attention, food, fear. Your baby smiles or turns her head, studying your face to understand, good from bad from simply curious. It'seems basic and beautiful in its own way. One thing I know for sure is that she can "feel the love."
http://www.caregiverstress.com/dementia-alzheimers-disease/symptoms/stages-of-alzheimers/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=10445760
This election year's hyper emotional and often vitriolic rhetoric reminded me of Mom, not such a strange notion with Alzheimers. It is true that this disease will dissolve the memories of family ties and if allowed, the ties themselves as in my case. It doesn't have to have that effect if caregivers and family remember that memories may go but emotion remains. The loved one feels, it's as simple as that. Mom feels love, fear, happiness, humor, hatred, anger or frankly, fakery. The link below, describes the stages of Alzheimers and in truth, I learned to wear colors she loves when I visit, to speak kindly while looking in her eyes and engaging with her. I the disease has made her hyper perceptive on a more basic level to her emotional side. She hears inner voices, constantly involved in conversations with the "air conditioning people,' as we call them. They tell her whether it's safe to go with me to the doctor, whether it's ok to eat something that's unfamiliar or whether the person who just stopped her wanderings is that "bad person" to be avoided or someone, that "lady" who represents a treat and a caring ear. It reminds me how much this disease resembles a reverse aging process that gets Mom as close to an infant mentally as possible. Your baby cries for attention, food, fear. Your baby smiles or turns her head, studying your face to understand, good from bad from simply curious. It'seems basic and beautiful in its own way. One thing I know for sure is that she can "feel the love."
http://www.caregiverstress.com/dementia-alzheimers-disease/symptoms/stages-of-alzheimers/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=10445760
No comments:
Post a Comment