If you have been caring for an elderly parent who has been battling memory loss for some time now, you may have finally received the diagnosis from their doctor. It is, without a doubt, Alzheimer’s disease, and this is the news you have been dreading. Age-related dementia may not always progress to a state in which a senior will totally lose cognitive function or suffer debilitating physical symptoms as the disease progresses.
This is, unfortunately, the point where you need to make a decision on where to go from here. Do you continue caring for your parent or should they be placed in a memory care facility? Perhaps knowing the challenges ahead will help you make the choice that is right for everyone involved, but mostly for your elderly parent.
1. Progressive Loss of Cognitive Thinking and Memory
With cognitive thinking and memory at the heart of the issue, it is good to know there are services like they have available at the memory care facility Crestwood. Bear in mind that the loss of cognition and memory are progressive so there will almost always come a point when they can’t recognize people they know, including family members. At some point they may not even know where they are or even what time or day it is.
2. Disorientation
You can expect them to get disoriented so that if they should wander out, they may immediately be lost. Even if they’ve lived in that home for a half-century, they may be so disoriented they don’t know where they are. This is an extreme danger for them.
3. Sudden Irritability and/or Anger
Often the inability to recognize people or this utter disorientation can result in sudden irritability or bouts of anger. A residential memory care facility can help to avoid these issues but if you are waiting for acceptance, one thing to know is that you cannot react to these situations. Sometimes just being calm yourself is enough to calm them down.
4. Dysphagia – Inability to Safely Swallow
As Alzheimer’s patients begin to lose bodily function inherent in the disease, they may also find it increasingly difficult to swallow. They will need to be on a special diet of extremely soft foods the consistency of pudding or they face the very real danger of choking. Dysphagia can be a life-threatening symptom of Alzheimer’s.
5. Inability to Recognize Places or People
As mentioned above, there will almost certainly come a time when they don’t recognize any of the people they’ve known and loved for their entire lives. This is a ‘normal’ part of the disease and something that you need to be prepared for. It will often take a skilled nursing staff to give them the care they need when they start to become agitated because they are being spoken to by a stranger – you, their daughter or son.
Bear in mind that there is a very real difference between age-related dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Age-related memory loss begins and ends there in the mind. Alzheimer’s affects the entire body and at some point, they will be bedridden for the remainder of their days on earth. If your loved one is suffering from Alzheimer’s, the very best thing you can do for them is to get them into a memory care facility to help ease them into a progressively debilitating disease.