Insanity Laughs...
Posts tagged alzheimer's disease
I am so 1000% offended by the ignorance of alliztac.tumblr.com. I would tell her so, but she only has formspring so I can’t without signing up for that crap.
While of course people with autism need support, I am focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease. You guys want to know what’s up with Alzheimer’s? I work on an secure ward for Alz/Dementia patients every day, and although I talk regularly about how much fun my job is and how special my residents are, I usually don’t dwell much on how Alzheimer’s disease and dementias are the saddest things to witness and therefore don’t discuss it. Ugly details, here we go.
Beyond memory loss, people with Alz start to lose the ability to feed themselves and eventually lose the ability to swallow (often times all they can eat is pureed food, or drink food that has been thickened). People with that severe of a dementia/Alz may die unexpectedly from aspirating on foods because liquids can become a huge problem and they choke very easily. Mealtimes are often long slow processes because they take food into their mouth and then just don’t know to swallow it. Food gets liquidy, more solid foods get pocketed in cheeks, and it sits there. Nurses often find food in the residents’ cheeks an hour or more after lunch hour, because they don’t get rid of it all at meal time.
People with dementias eventually get to the point where they can no longer do any form of care on their own. They are incontinent, they cannot get dressed on their own, they can’t bathe without supervision or help. When you live with a loved one with Alz/Dementia at home, you have no life…these small mundane activities which would take a healthy person short amounts of time, can take up half your day. Especially if the person has aggressive tendencies, which often are responsive behaviours to the things that happen at care (Like: who are you, why are you putting me in water? Why are you taking my clothes off? I don’t understand this situation, please stop)
People with Alzheimer’s often wander, and if not in a secure setting, they can go missing. If you live with a loved one at home, they might think they have somewhere to go, or are convinced they need to be somewhere right now. Down the street they go. Down another street, another and another. Wandering is a hard behaviour because because depending on the dementia, they might not realize they are tired and should rest, and will go until they fall down. On the flip side, Alzheimer’s also eventually affects their motor abilities, and some lose the ability to walk unassisted, or at all.
People with Alzheimer’s disease also hallucinate audibly and visually and have dramatic changes in mood and paranoia.
Now, you might not care about Alzheimer’s now, Alliztac, and any other ignorant beings who agree with this statement. But let’s all stop for a second and ponder this.
As of 2010, there are an estimated 35.6 million people with dementia worldwide. By 2050, it is projected that this figure will have increased to over 115 million.
Look at these figures. LOOK. How is that not a cause worth fighting over?
Not enough for you? You might say, they are old, and will die soon anyway, so what.
Wrong…three words. Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Did you know more and more people are being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in their earlier life, some as early as their 40s-50s. This crippling dementia is marked by a swift decline that, often within five years of diagnosis, strips young, healthy men and women of their jobs, their sexuality and their ability to care for their children. Victims usually progress to the terminal stage within 10 years.
TERMINAL WITHIN 10 YEARS.
The world is full of old people right now, and it’s only going to increase. The Baby Boomers and the generations directly after them are flooding nursing homes and hospitals.
And you’re telling me, that these people don’t deserve the money to back research and offer them the best care we can in the last, dignity stripped years of their life?
This may be tl;dr to some of you, but NEVER, and I mean NEVER talk ignorantly about Alzheimer’s in front of me. I have started and will continue to dedicate my entire life to being there for people with Alzheimer’s disease. You’ll change your opinion when your grandmother, or maybe eventually your mom or dad and then maybe your wife or husband…OR YOU get it. You’ll wish you’d spent some time educating yourself and supporting this often-ignored cause.
129 notes (via skunkitty & the-unpopular-opinions-deactiva)
As someone who works with Alzheimer’s patients, I find little quips like this offensive.
If you are cursed with Alz or Dementia when you’re older and you’re memories are slipping away without your control, you’ll be mind-boggled that you ever thought this way.
(Source: unknown )
8 notes (via missbattypage & kingr-s)
Time to get ready for work.
Another evening…just did one Saturday. These are too close together, but whatever. I will live.
Tonight there is a workshop for families about Having Meaningful Visits with Alzheimer’s-inflicted loved ones. I am looking forward to hearing it, so it will be a good night, hopefully.
And on a side, and entirely unrelated note..
I weigh today, the lightest I have ever weighed as a teenager or adult, at 171lbs.
This makes me happy :)
I think I want to buy a Moleskine notebook…
…and fill it with sketches.
I had the idea to dedicate each page to a funny quote or random moment from my daily happenings at work on the Alzheimer’s ward. I have so many favorite things they’ve said…it would be a great way to remember them all over the years! :)
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Lunch Time Talk
- Me: (resident's name), here have a sip of soup!
- Resident: I don't want this soup, I'd rather eat poop.
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But the destruction continues, doing its best to uproot your loved ones and dip their hearts in fire.”
4 notes
Today I spent my afternoon…
…playing floor hockey with 12 people with Alzheimer’s/dementia. It was a wicked time.
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I want to ask all of my readers to consider something!
I have been going back and forth, I haven’t decided if this is douchey of me or not to do, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
I am doing a Walk for Memories, which is an event to raise money for The Alzheimer’s Society of Canada. As I work in an Alzheimer’s ward every day, this is a charity very close to my heart.
And it is important on a large scale too…and this is why…
- Today, half a million Canadians have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Approximately 71,000 of them are under age 65.
- This means that 1 in 11 Canadians over the age of 65 currently has Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia.
- This year alone, more than 103,000 Canadians will develop dementia. This is equivalent to one person every five minutes. By 2038, this will become one person every two minutes, or more than 257,000 people per year.
- If nothing changes, the number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia is expected to more than double, reaching 1.1 million Canadians within 25 years.
The facts are there…more and more people are aging, and more and more cases of Alzheimer’s keeps popping up. Early onset cases, or people getting it under the age of 65, are on the rise as well.
If you have been touched by Alzheimer’s disease, or are just interested in supporting the charity, please let me know by commenting, and I will send you the link.
(I will not have access to any of your confidential information, such as credit card number or address, donations are through a secure website)
I appreciate any support I receive, whether it’s $2 or $20. So, what do you say?
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One of my Alz ward residents yesterday at lunch, that I was trying to serve dessert to.
A Remembrance Day Moment worth sharing
Today at work was our annual Remembrance Day ceremony. There was a lot of chaos in the organization, and I got treated pretty poorly by my boss all day. I ran around all day in high heels, was exhausted and just not into it by the time the ceremony was started and the parade of military personnels and vets was in procession, which I had spent all day organizing.
I didn’t even sit in the auditorium to watch the event, I was so tired, with the exception of certain things that peaked my interest, like watching the young girl who plays the bugle start playing the Last Post.
On our Alzheimer’s ward we have an old navy veteran, covered shoulder to wrist with old military tats and pretty long hair. He can’t talk, with the exception of the word “no” and “yeah” and he can barely walk, so most of the time he is in a wheelchair, as he is pretty heavy and isn’t strong enough to support himself. He is very far into his dementia, and understands little to no verbal communication.
Well, that little girl started playing the bugle, and I watched with amazement as he shot to attention in his wheelchair, and started using all of his strength to stand himself up. Something triggered him to remember that when “I hear the bugle, I have to stand at attention.” Because that’s what soldiers do.
The young soldier beside him helped him stand up and he saluted the whole time. I was in the back, half panicking that he would fall (that’s reflex now when I see anyone out of their wheelchair that shouldn’t be), and half crying because it was so beautiful. He stood with the soldier’s assistance for the Last Post, moment of silence, and the Reveille, saluting so proudly the entire time. He also stood up for God Save the Queen, which signified the end of the ceremony.
He was so happy when I brought him back upstairs, and he definitely seemed in much better spirits than he had when we brought him down to line up, sleeping the whole time.
I had a real shit day, I have to say….but that moment made today matter.
A Beautiful Moment at work today…
Another post about a resident of ours that I’ve mentioned earlier…the “lawyer”.
Our beloved dear is not a very able resident….she can no longer do most “activities of daily living” on her own.
Today we did bowling in the afternoon on the floor. She came in and sat down, but didn’t really participate at first. After a few turns I thought I’d offer her a chance to try. I brought her up, handed her the ball, and stood behind her to do a hand-over-hand throw. She shook me off of her, bent down low to aim, and got a strike. It almost made me cry, I was so proud of her!
She took 5 more turns after that one, and by the end of each turn, she’d knocked down all the pins as a strike or spare.
She may not make a lot of sense when she talks, she may need help getting dressed every day, and need to be fed, but she bowled today like a champ!
Working with Alzheimer’s residents is all about living in the moment. What a moment today :)
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