Living with Dementia

Having a loved one with Dementia is extremely difficult. Almost everyone knows someone who has it or has been affected by it, but yet there is still so little known about it. There is still so little to prevent, slow, treat, or cure it. When I was about 11 years old, my grandfather (my dad's father) was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He was in his late 80s and it was most likely onset by age. He eventually succumbed to the disease or natural causes. I remember how devastated my father was when his own father didn't know him. My dad has looked just like my granddad his whole life, but yet my granddad had no idea who my dad was when he would visit. After visiting with him, my dad would say if that ever happened to him to drive him out on a country road and kick him out to let the animals have him (he was always a huge animal and nature lover). Knowing how he felt about this disease makes watching him suffer with it that much harder.  Some days we get glimpses of his ...

Four years ago this week we were in Savannah for a 'babymoon' with my family. Also to get our dogs back, which my parents had been watching all Summer for us while we prepared for our baby's arrival. My dad had been more than excited to watch his granddogs, he'd always been an animal lover and he absolutely adored Sabrina. This time was different though, it was almost like therapy for him. I had mixed emotions about taking the dogs back but we were seeing my parents in just a few weeks again anyway because of Michael's birth. We met my parents at a hotel in Savannah, per usual my dad was quiet. I told him if he wanted he could keep the dogs in their room for the weekend, and this seemed to perk him up. It was during this trip I noticed the almost OCD like habits my father had formed. Noting first that while it was great the dogs were getting walked, he was walking them 8 or more times a day. He'd come inside, sit down and then get right back up to walk them...

In June of 2013, I was five months pregnant and preparing to come home for a Baby Shower my mom's friends were hosting for me. Sometime in the beginning of that month I got a call that started out with "don't worry but..." followed up with finding out that earlier in the day my dad had fallen at work. He had tripped on a curb. The details were fuzzy, but basically his ankle was hurt and he'd also hit his head. His ankle was the big worry at the time because of his work and love for golf. Again, I was told not to worry, so I didn't. No big deal. It was a little strange though, to my mom at least, as my dad never got hurt. He wasn't the clumsy type so she didn't understand how it happened, and he couldn't tell her. At the time, we didn't know it, but after much research and many consultations with doctors, we believe when he hit his head it rapidly accelerated his symptoms. Flash forward a few weeks and I came home for my shower. My dads ankle ...