Alzheimer's Disease Caregiver, Are You a Hamster?

Amplify’d from www.alzheimersreadingroom.com

One of the most difficult tasks an Alzheimer's caregiver faces is the development of a new set of communications skills. Sooner or later the caregiver needs to come to an understanding that the way they have communicated in the past, before Alzheimer's, won't work in a world filled with Alzheimer's disease.

Here is the good news. You are the ONE that gets to decide. Stay on, or get off the wheel. The hamster has no choice. You do.

Original content Bob DeMarco, read this article at the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Mom Didn't Laugh for Two Years and it was Killing Me

My mother, Dorothy, did not laugh for over two years. It was "killing" me....

By Bob DeMarco

Max wrote about the last great big laugh he heard from his Great Grams. It was obviously vivid in his mind. See The Plaid Pajamas and the Last Big Laugh.

This reminded me of one of the saddest periods in my life. My mother didn't laugh for over two years. She rarely smiled during this period. Severe heartache, it hurt.

I would look over and there would be mom. The glassy eyed look, the stare into what must be either confusion or "nowhere". The look of Alzheimer's and dementia.

To Continue reading go here --

Alzheimer's Reading Room: Mom Didn't Laugh for Two Years and it was Killing Me

Inside Alzheimer's How to Hear and Honor Connections with a Person who has Dementia

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Alzheimer's Disease and the Five Stages of Grief

URL:  http://www.alzheimersreadingroom.com/2010/11/alzheimers...

Alzheimer’s progresses slowly and subtly at first, and you don’t notice initially that anything is different. At one point, the ‘small voice’ of the subconscious occasionally comes out, but you tend to tune it out -- or I did anyway.

Original content Carol Blackwell, the Alzheimer's Reading Room