The Dryer Ate Your Underwear! Q: My mom is in the early stages of dementia and she is also incontinent we have tried to get her to stop wearing her underpants and have her start wearing pull-up diapers, she throws the Depends out the door and puts her underpants on. Of coarse we have a [...]
Communication, the Gifts and Challenges The give and take of good conversation is a joy. We can be introduced to a total stranger and develop a friendship within minutes if the conversation is open and honest. The friendships formed through the writing of this book were cemented before we ever met each other merely through [...]
Dementia Questions “Oh for goodness sake!” said Mary to her Alzheimer’s support group. “My mother’s driving us all crazy. She just asks the same question over and over and we tell her the answer and then a couple of minutes later, she asks the same question.” Ah yes, the dementia equivalent of the Chinese water [...]
Serious Signs of Burn out Over involvement is a serious sign of burn out. When you are over involved, you begin to look at the person you provide care for as a series of tasks that need to be performed, rather than, thinking, “What can I do to help them?” You may be in trouble [...]
Dementia Etiquette So, you’re going to see your mother. She has dementia — maybe Alzheimer’s, maybe something else — but anyway even her doctor agrees its dementia. She lives with your sister — about which you feel both guilty and relieved. When you see her, things hardly ever go well. “Hello, Mom,” you say, “How [...]
Have You Seen My Keys? There comes a time in everyone’s life that we are all looking for our misplaced keys or when we can’t recall a common phone number or even a familiar face. Typically there is no reason to be alarmed. Many of the seniors we come in contact with today even joke [...]
Fixing Mom’s Dementia If you really want to fix Mom’s dementia, a really skilled diagnosis is what you need. Because, the right Alzheimer’s work-up may reveal that your Mom does not have dementia at all. What Else Looks Like Dementia? A lot of things, actually. That’s because what most people think of as dementia often [...]
