A Realization The look of emptiness and grief on his face was heartbreaking. It was a hot, sunny summer’s day and it was my younger brother and me at my great grandmothers’ house. My great grandma was taken care of by my grandmother. She had Alzheimer’s disease and has had to use a wheelchair for as long as I had known her. However, I didn’t know her, not very well at least. Once in a while, she would say a few words or so, but she was hardly able to speak as a result of Alzheimer’s. My brother and I would stay with my grandma almost every other day when our parents went out of town or anything like that. For that reason, we went to my great grandmother’s house a lot since she had to take care of her. Around this time it was the year …show more content…
I didn’t think much of it but soon he lowered the phone slowly and pressed the end button. He moped over back to his chair and stared off for a moment. Eventually, my mother asked what the matter was. It took him a minute to reply but he told us the news that he had just received. He told us that our great-grandmother had passed away. We all just sat there for a moment in silence. He said that she had passed away that night and didn’t wake back up. We all knew that it would be soon but the thought of it actually happening never crossed any of our minds. Rather than sadness, I felt more of confusion because even though I hadn’t known her very well, I had never experienced a death with anyone I even knew. So thinking about how she was gone, just like that was unbelievable to me. Soon we decided to go to my grandparents’ house, for “comfort” I guess. I didn’t even think about how they must have felt. She was my grandpa’s mother and my grandma had taken care of her every single day. We opened the creaky door to be welcomed with dreary, empty faces filled with grief and despair. That same day, I saw my grandfather cry for the first and only time until this day. That single moment I think is when I came to a strong realization and maybe even a
I, of course, knew my mother as a mother. As I have reached adulthood and become a mother myself, I have also known her as a friend. My mom shared much of herself with me, and I saw sides of my mother as she struggled with her cancer that I had never seen before, especially her strong belief in positive thinking and the importance of quality of life. I was privileged to know so many facets of my mother, but certainly I did not know all. There were parts of her life that I didn’t see, relationships that I didn’t know about. Last night, at the wake, so many stories were told to me about my mom’s strength, courage, humor, kindness, her quietness, her loyalty as a friend. It was so special to hear of these things that my mom said and did, to know some of these other parts of her life. I hope that her friends and family will continue to share these stories with me and with each other so we can continue to know and remember my mom.
The article “Cracking the Alzheimer’s code” by Linda Marsa discusses the history, discoveries and advancements for Alzheimer’s disease. The discovery of Alzheimer’s disease was revealed through a German physician named Alois Alzheimer. Alzheimer first discovered Alzheimer’s in the year 1901 while he was interviewing a mentally Ill patient named Auguste Dexter. The beginning of his discovery was due to the fact that Dexter was exhibiting uncontrollable behaviors that included jealously, screaming, confusion and paranoia. After Dexter had passed away, Alzheimer saw this as an opportunity to examine her brain under a microscope in thin pieces. To Alzheimer’s surprise, he discovered two abnormal substances on brain slices that were called amyloid
She passed away in 2006 when I was a junior in high school. My family and I visited her every weekend at the nursing home. She disliked being at the nursing home away from her family. At the same time, it was the only way for her to be taken care of. She was paralyzed from her left side of the body from a stroke and diabetes. Also, she was a little heavy. Therefore, they were unable to lift her up and do the activities of daily living. Between her sons and daughters they all decided that her being in a nursing home is the best decision for her and everyone else.
I rushed out of the bedroom confused. I began to realize what was going on. I ran to where I last saw her and she was not there. Never before I felt my heart sank. My eyes filled with tears. I dropped to my knees and felt the cold white tile she last swept and mopped for my family. I look up and around seeing picture frames of of her kids, grandchildren, and great grandchildren smiling. I turn my head to the right and see the that little statue of the Virgin Mary, the last gift we gave her. I began to cry and walked to my mother hugging her. My father walked dreadfully inside the house. He had rushed my great grandmother to the hospital but time has not on his side. She had a bad heart and was not taking her medication. Later that morning, many people I have never seen before came by to pray. I wandered why this had to happen to her. So much grief and sadness came upon
I walked into the room on New Year’s Day and felt a sudden twinge of fear. My eyes already hurt from the tears I had shed and those tears would not stop even then the last viewing before we had to leave. She lay quietly on the bed with her face as void of emotion as a sheet of paper without the writing. Slowly, I approached the cold lifeless form that was once my mother and gave her a goodbye kiss.
I am going to discuss a case of Mrs. Judi Sharman who is 74-years-old widower suffering from severe stage of dementia and has been an aged care home resident for the past two years. At the time of admission into residential care, she was suffering from moderate stage of dementia but now her behavior and psychological symptoms got worsened from past six months. She has been becoming more agitated in evening with sun downing and is physically aggressive at some times and her mood disturbances become problem for other residents and staff members as she starts sudden shouting and disturbs others. She is also experiencing some hallucinations and delusions that represent psychotic illness .Now I will discuss the identification, assessment and management of these symptoms by using current literature.
Though it may seem impossible, the most seminal moment of my experience came a few months before my birth. My grandmother’s suicide changed my life before it even began. Even though the experience clearly had no direct influence on me emotionally because I never met her and did not understand what happened until many years later, it has led to my strength in and value of empathy. Throughout my entire life I have heard about my grandmother from my mom and many others. Even though she passed away nineteen years ago, her life’s impact and her death’s impact still weigh heavily on the lives of my family, including me even though I never met her.
tends to increase with age, but there is a big difference between normal forgetfulness and Alzheimer's disease. There are three things to know about Alzheimer's: the facts and figures, the seven stages, and the changes in the brain.
The horrible feeling of forgetting a coworker’s or an acquaintance’s name may be one of the most frustrating things a person can experience. This is a fact that many patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s face on a reoccurring basis. Loss of memory is a common part of the aging process and is sometimes referred to as dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and is not reversible in this day and age. In fact, 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases are Alzheimer’s and in 2015 more than 5.1 million cases age 65 or older were reported (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016). The most startling statistic is that by 2050, 14 million Americans and 81 million worldwide cases are expected (Wierenga & Bondi, 2011). While dementia is a part of Alzheimer’s it also affects an afflicted patient ability to perform day to day tasks, increased mood swings, and in the later stages, the ability to even walk or care for themselves. This horrible disease
As I sit here writing this research paper on the fourth anniversary of my grandfather’s death to Alzheimer’s, I cannot help but to feel especially connected not only to the physical destructiveness of the disease, but also to the emotional tolls associated with having it affect a family member. When I was in my freshman year of high school, my grandpa (mother’s father) began his steady decline from his diagnosis of this ailment. A man who I knew my whole life to be strong and independent started to become physically fragile and even more mentally so; after some time, he began to show signs of drastic memory loss, constant confusion and a hazardous inability to perform tasks once done with minimal effort. The onset of these debilitations had an immeasurable impact on my family. My grandmother (his wife) possessed the largest burden of the constant care for my grandfather as he slid into a state of powerlessness and incapability for basic self-maintenance. However, since my grandma never learned how to drive, taking full care of my grandpa become a near impossible task. After nearly a year and a half of my family witnessing my grandfather losing himself to Alzheimer’s, my family decided to place him in a hospice care facility that could provide him with the proper care before his inevitable passing to the disease a few months later.
When I walked inside the front door something didn’t seem right. The feeling of sorrow overwhelmed the house. It was so thick I could literally feel it in the air. Everyone was motionless. They were sulking;I was befuddled. The most energetic people in the world, doing absolutely nothing. I repeatedly asked them what was wrong. After an hour or so, my dad pulled me aside. He said that my Aunt Feli had passed away last night. My mind went for a loop, I was so confused. I thought that he was joking, so I replied “You’re lying, don’t mess with me like that.” and punched his shoulder softly while I chuckled. My dad quickly started tearing up and said, “There...
`My mother hadn't let us come to his funeral because we were only children then, and he had died in hospital, so the graveyard and even his death seemed unreal to me.`
They are a danger to society, they are a menace to our roadways. They are Old People. Old people have been terrorizing the safety and sanctity of our roadways ever since Henry Ford made the model T back in 1908. It is simple really we need standardized licensing requirements for people considered elderly. We also need a way to decide how old old is.
We moved closer to her once I started school. My Grandma met my brother and me almost always once we got home from school. It was always welcoming to have a friendly face when you got home. She taught me how to read and write and once I was able to read she dedicated numerous books to me that she always recommended and had such a vivid story. On hot summer days she would take us to the beach and play in the water and sand, or have a great time running around on the park, or just going there to enjoy a nice picnic. We had such a long walk to our front door of numerous winding steps and she came up with a game to play down them. We called ...
It was a pleasant day at the Dementia unit and I was assigned to care for a lady whom we can call Miss K. She is a lovely, warm and nice lady who was recently admitted to the Dementia unit two weeks ago. I went to her room to meet her, I introduced myself, greeted her and gave her a hand shake for me to establish rapport. She was very cooperative, participative and independent with her cares. From my observation, I noticed that she is very organised and very particular when it comes to cleanliness. She also wakes up early in the morning and makes sure that all of the things that she needs for morning care are neatly arrange in the bathroom. When having a shower, she cleans her body very well. She also brushes her teeth and cleans her dentures very well. She always likes to wear red coloured clothes and red floral nighties. Before leaving her room, she makes sure that her glasses are clean before wearing it, her used clothes are neatly kept in the empty drawer and she wants to have a handkerchief in her pocket. I also noticed that there is always a glass