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Imagine
What It's Like |
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Can you imagine what it must be like for the person that has Alzheimer's disease?
My Grammy loves being outside and she enjoys going for walks. But Mama says that Gram may now forget which way to go home even if she’s only a short distance away from her house. How do you think you’d feel if you were trying to get home from a walk and you didn’t recognize the street names or the houses?
Being lost in a store and unable to find your parents may cause you to become alarmed and panic. Fearful feelings are probably fairly common for the person with Alzheimer's disease.
One
person in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease described the disease like
driving in a fog. Sometimes the fog rolls in so thick and heavy that the
driver is forced to stop altogether because it’s hard to make anything
out.
It’s the changes happening inside the brain that are actually causing the confusion in Alzheimer's disease. But to the person with the disease, it must seem like everything outside the body is changing and the world is being turned upside down.
I get upset when something I’ve planned gets changed – like having a fishing trip or a nature study cancelled. I can’t imagine how frustrated and fearful Grammy must be when her whole life appears to be changing and she’s no longer in control.
Trying to imagine how Grammy feels reminds me to treat her with kindness and patience. I don’t care if she calls me by the wrong name, if she forgets my birthday or where she leaves stuff, if she sees or hears things that aren’t there, or talks about times long ago as if they happened yesterday. I make sure that Gram knows I care about her. She can feel my love when I give her a big smile, a hug, or hold hands with her.
