Alzheimer's is a disease that has been running in my family since the early 80's. It has continued to be this way, even until today. My grandfather (father side) had this disease in the 80's. My father and I was his primary caregiver.Throughout the years, 4 out of 7 of my fathers brothers developed this disease, and now for the past 15 years my father has had this disease.
Now, for the past few years I have been taking care of my father.My mother refused to place him in a nursing home.She figured no person could care for him like his own family. He is in the later stage of the disease and has lost all communication and mobility.Everything must be done for him. After taking on this responsibilty I found out I didn't have a clue as to how much a person needed to know before doing this.
After knowing that this disease has been running in my family, I knew it was time that I did research on the chances of me or my other 4 brothers getting Alzheimer's later in life.There was no kind of hard proof that either my brothers or myself would developed this disease through genes.Still, I just wanted to know how to identify the symptoms of Alzheimers, and how to take better care for someone, especially in the early stages, since I don't know if I would have to do this again for one of my brothers.
When we found out about this disease affecting my father, we tried our best to find information on how to care for him.What we received was a lot of medical advise, which we had a family doctor for that.I needed to know more on how to care for him (changing,feeding,etc..).The only thing I could think of was call our local Elderly Care Facility and see if I could get hands on training on how to properly do the day to day tasks that needed to be done.Wow did I learn a lot.
For those who read this article and is a newly at-home caregiver of a love one, you need to find out the proper ways of doing things because you can easily get burned out doing things the wrong way.
I hope this blog, which is a personal blog about my father's Alzheimer's, help someone who is caring for a love one. I offer no medical advise because I'm not a doctor. This is just a great way for me to share my journey.Thanks for reading!
Now, for the past few years I have been taking care of my father.My mother refused to place him in a nursing home.She figured no person could care for him like his own family. He is in the later stage of the disease and has lost all communication and mobility.Everything must be done for him. After taking on this responsibilty I found out I didn't have a clue as to how much a person needed to know before doing this.
After knowing that this disease has been running in my family, I knew it was time that I did research on the chances of me or my other 4 brothers getting Alzheimer's later in life.There was no kind of hard proof that either my brothers or myself would developed this disease through genes.Still, I just wanted to know how to identify the symptoms of Alzheimers, and how to take better care for someone, especially in the early stages, since I don't know if I would have to do this again for one of my brothers.
When we found out about this disease affecting my father, we tried our best to find information on how to care for him.What we received was a lot of medical advise, which we had a family doctor for that.I needed to know more on how to care for him (changing,feeding,etc..).The only thing I could think of was call our local Elderly Care Facility and see if I could get hands on training on how to properly do the day to day tasks that needed to be done.Wow did I learn a lot.
For those who read this article and is a newly at-home caregiver of a love one, you need to find out the proper ways of doing things because you can easily get burned out doing things the wrong way.
I hope this blog, which is a personal blog about my father's Alzheimer's, help someone who is caring for a love one. I offer no medical advise because I'm not a doctor. This is just a great way for me to share my journey.Thanks for reading!
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