The Forgetting - Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia Message Board

seekingnormal05 · 09-13-2005, 03:14 PM

Hi all. Been absolutely terrible lately. Mom has really hit the skids bad.

During this time I saw a documentary on PBS (Public TV in the US) called "The Forgetting". It's very good. If you get the chance, catch it. It gives the history of Alzheimer's Disease and follows a couple of people.

I haven't seem this mentioned here but may have missed it. So if it's been discussed, just let this post pass.

Dr. Alzheimer worked at an insane asylum. A woman was brought in to him who was in her early 50's. There was just something about her that made him realize it was not a "mental" illness. After her death he autopsied her brain and found the plaque build up. (It was described as a goo type substance, not like the hard stuff we get on out teeth.) The most heart breaking part of the story was that she said to the doctor "I have lost myself".

One of the things that helped me is to understand that a part of this illness is not just that the synapses of the brain are shorted out, but that the reasoning center of the brain dies. So the people, even when they are having a "good" day, are unable to reason as they could before. That helped me a lot. My Mom will still have days where she seems completely normal. So you wonder why, if she can think normally that day, why she can't reason. Well, that's it.

So, catch it if you can. It was very worth the view.

LuvMyLilDoggie · 09-13-2005, 06:10 PM

Thank you! I'll keep an eye out for it.

Love, Barb

WannaBeFreeToRoam · 09-13-2005, 10:32 PM

Hi Seeking,

I heard that that was on PBS. My mom and dad starting watching it, but I think they dropped out when they found out what it was about! I missed it. Maybe it will come on again.

I am sorry to hear that your mom is not doing well right now. What level do you think she is - I realize they go from one to the other and back again. My father does, anyway. He is a 5 - 6. My mom is a 2 - 3. If you do not mind telling me, was there anything that could have caused your mom to go down faster? Just so I will know what to look for in the future. And was it really fast? I do understand that, about them not being able to reason. Even when my father has good days, there are some things that he just cannot do or cannot understand or remember!

Take care of you. Love, Wannabe

seekingnormal05 · 09-14-2005, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToBeFreeToRoam

Hi Seeking,

I heard that that was on PBS. My mom and dad starting watching it, but I think they dropped out when they found out what it was about! I missed it. Maybe it will come on again.

I am sorry to hear that your mom is not doing well right now. What level do you think she is - I realize they go from one to the other and back again. My father does, anyway. He is a 5 - 6. My mom is a 2 - 3. If you do not mind telling me, was there anything that could have caused your mom to go down faster? Just so I will know what to look for in the future. And was it really fast? I do understand that, about them not being able to reason. Even when my father has good days, there are some things that he just cannot do or cannot understand or remember!

Take care of you. Love, Wannabe

What I think happened is that she lost the ability to take her medications correctly. I was laying them out in one of those "Sunday - Saturday - Morning - Lunch - Afternoon - Evening" dispenser things. Thought she could handle that. Well, she couldn't. She decided she should take them right to left. (????? Have no idea where she got that idea.) So she was starting in the top Saturday box, then to the top Friday box, etc. Luckily, she was doing such a hit skip job of it that she didn't overdose. But here's the part that just frosts me. SHE KNEW TO HIDE IT. We have two of those dispensors so she may have gone two weeks without meds. High blood pressure, diabetis and others. That really sent her reeling. Bad. We've gotten things back under control but it seems like every time she does something like this, she never can get back as far.

She needed to be taken to the hospital. When the doctor asked her if she was taking her meds she looked right at him and said "no". He asked why and she said "because I got sick to death of taking pills all day." I would ask her every day if she had taken the day before's and she not only would say yes but would bite at me ..."I've taken pills all my life. You act like I'm too stupid to take a pill". When we got home from the hospital we found pills hidden all over the house, even in with her mail! She knew she wasn't taking them but I think she wasn't taking them because she couldn't admit she didn't know how.

It a circle.

Take care -
Seeking...still

seekingnormal05 · 09-14-2005, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shays mom

Hi Seeking,
My father's illness progressed very quickly. He no doubt had symptoms for a few years which went unseen. When he was diagnosed he was around stage 4-5. He apparently (based on the opinion of a Dr., there was no autopsy) it was probably Diffuse Lewy Bodies Disease. The reason is he presented early with hallucinations, a lot of aggitation and the disease progressed at such a rate that he only lived three years after diagnosis.
An illness or surgery or even a bad fall can also accelerate the disease.

Deborah (Shay was my horse)

My connection just had a little hissy fit on me if this gets posted double.

I didn't know what Diffuse Lewy Bodies Disease was so I read a web page before responding. This is interesting:

For Alzheimer's:
Incidence of hallucinations 20%, usually in moderately advanced disease

For Diffuse Lewy Bodies Disease:
Incidence of hallucinations 80%, usually early in illness

My Mom does not show any of the Parkinson's issues but even though she is not yet considered advanced (although I question that) she has started hallucinating. This just with her last illness. So maybe this really did push her even further along than I thought.

And totally off topic, what kind of horse was Shay? Aside from beautiful.

Take care -
Seeking