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Dealing with Alzheimer's.. **Updated - He passed

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Sorry for your loss.

Revelation 21:4

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
 
My condolences to you, your mom, & family. What an especially awful Mother's Day for your mom. 🙁




Alzheimer's, strokes, cognitive impairments, & other brain injuries suck for the victims and their families.
 
Sorry for your loss. It sounds almost like what my family is going through on my dad's side. Grandpa was a smart chemical engineer working in nuclear facilities for almost his whole life. Sharp as a tack and then about 2 years ago we started noticing signs until the point where he forgot who my cousin was one Christmas. Everyone is afraid to even ask if he knows who we are or our names, but like many have mentioned in this thread, he'll come back to life just like normal for a couple of seconds and be able to talk about something just like he was able to before, but then it's back to not knowing what he's doing.

He'll ask weird questions about "why is it when you move that receiver on the wood it makes that squeaky noise?" I was cleaning underneath his receiver equipment and the rubber feet were squeaking against the wood shelf and he couldn't comprehend entirely what was going on.

It's super scary that you can just go like that. He is almost 82 now and probably smoked two or three packs a day and went through a 750ml bottle of Jack every week along with some beers. I was wondering how he lasted so long, he seemed invincible.

Dr. sits there and says it's not Alzheimers which is a total crock of shit. Dr. needs to re-evaluate his practice because it's clearly Alzheimers.

Anyways, my dad and mom are preparing for the worst, getting ready to re-do some elements of their house so they can sell it off and figure out what to do when my grandpa gets in such bad shape that my grandma can't take care of him any more.

And all this comes a few years after my Grandma on my mom's side passed away from Glioblastoma, one of the rarest brain tumors one can get. Life sucks.
 
Sorry for your loss.

My father has lewy body dementia which came with Parkinson's Disease. It's tough to see him this way. He was once a highly intelligent professional.

Dementia is the most awful thing imaginable. It robs you are not only your intellect but your personality. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
 
Sorry for your loss. I lost a lot of family in the past years, always hard to watch. Just around Christmas lost 2 within a week of each other.
 
My deepest sympathies to you and your family. My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's as well, and he battled it for the last 8+ years of his life. In the beginning, it was just mild forgetfulness, which rapidly got worse. It led to a loss of recognition of just about everybody, and eventually everything. Earlier on, he would have some lucid moments who he would seemingly out of nowhere remember who I was, and ask me how I was doing, and tell me a story from my childhood, but those eventually stopped. He lost speech and finer motor coordination. At the end, my aunt couldn't even feed him anymore. He just stopped swallowing, almost like his body just didn't remember how to do it anymore. It's a cruel, cruel disease, and the only bright spot for him, you, and your family is that you no longer need to suffer through it.
 
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I was in the room with my family when my grandfather passed.

He didn't have any Alzheimer's or dementia -- he merely fell and hit his head, and due to the blood thinners he was taking, the hematoma in his brain finally overtook him. Still, it is a surreal experience.

To that extent, I empathize with you, OP. Sorry for your loss.
 
Sorry to hear that, man. You have my deepest condolences.

I lost both of my grand-dads over the last 4 years; one due to age + Alzheimers, the other to an acute heart attack. I'm not sure which was worse; knowing and watching a hero deteriorate, or having another suddenly taken without warning.

Stay strong, dude.
 
My condolences.

My uncle had Parkinson's disease. I wouldn't wish that disease on my worst enemy. It slowly robs you of movement. At the end you're incapable of doing much at all.

Death is one of the reasons why I decided to follow Buddhisim. It allows you to see death in a different light than many other religions. Instead of ignoring death like we do in our society, it hits it head on. It asks "why do we suffer?"
 
The best part is he went with all of you around. A lot of people don't get that much. Sounds like he had a long life and made a lot of difference to others being a teacher.

My grandfather and grandmother on opposite sides of the family died of cancer and they weren't really lucid near their time of death. It was really hard to see my parents deal with it. My grandfather died in hospice care in the middle of the night with nobody around - it affects us among the living more than them IMO.
 
Appreciate the support guys. His obituary will be in the paper today. My mom is still devastated about how it all happened. She keeps saying he didn't deserve to go that way, but I have to keep telling her that no one really gets to choose the way they go. He lived a great life up until the end - no major injuries, never laid off, always a solid job, etc. We can only hope to follow that path. In any case, I am glad it happened the way it did with all of us there even though it was probably the most terrifying thing I've ever seen.

Now comes the fun part - dealing with the nursing home, dealing with the funeral home, and my grandma dealing with all of the $$/income crap. They make all of this stuff so difficult. It's especially hard when you just lost someone you loved dearly.
 
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