Updated on May 11th 2012 my updates are in bold below
I created this BLOG in hopes that my journey with my mother and her Alzheimer’s can help others. I list my daily posts below. I wanted to explain a little about my mother Alzheimer’s. She has helped me all my life with my journey of cerebral palsy. My website that talks about my cerebral palsy and my climbing adventures is at www.timsashwood.com if you want to check it out. She is 90 years old and has had Alzheimer’s for at least 15 years now. I first noticed her memory problems back in the fall of 1997. She was able to keep driving and handling her check book until the winter of 2003/2004. She could still go on 2 mile hikes with me into 2005 and ½ mile walks thru 2008, now she mostly can only walk a few yards before her hip starts to hurt her. I moved back into her home in 2005 to help her stay in her house although I have kept my own place thru March 2011. One of the things I feel that has helped her go 15 years and still going is I’ve had people (mostly me) around her quit a bit. This helped her stay engaged with people. In 2003 she averaged people with her @90hrs/wk out of 168 hrs in a week, in 2004/2005/2006 @110hrs/wk, 2007 @125hrs/wk, 2008 @135hrs/wk. Then starting in January 2009 she has had someone with her 24/7. I started using care givers in 2005 to help and to give mom other women to talk to and get use to. Right now she can still dress and undress herself but is starting to struggle with it and needs to be told what to do most of the time. In December 2009 she started to refuse to wash herself now one of the care givers I use sponge bathes her 3 times a week. Right now mentally she is like a 3 or 4 year old girl with just a few seconds of memory. She has started to get confused with the getting undressed and dressed part but can still do it herself. She has also sometimes thought the person she sees in the bathroom mirror is someone else this started in 2010. I started using a diaper pad on mom’s bed in July 2011. In the fall of 2011 we increased the dosage on mom’s Galantamine. In March of 2012 I stopped giving her the supplements it has started to get harder to get her to take the pills. So I started just giving her a one a day vitamin instead. Then in May 2012 we have started to crush mom’s pills and put them in applesauce about 3 or 4 days a week. She loves applesauce. She can still walk on her own with no help. Here is a list of the drugs she takes for her Alzheimer’s.
•Razadyne started in 2000 then in 2011 changed to generic Galantamine
•Namenda started March 2005
December 2013
It was a good month overall I was extended again at work
until the end of January and it was the month we celebrate the birth of our
savior Jesus. I had dropped in November
2 24/7 people down to just one 24/7 person. This seems to work out better as
well as saving money. I still have 2
people here during the day when I’m at work and for the graveyard shift so I
can sleep but still have 2 people to turn and change mom. Andrea was able one day to get mom standing
on her own just holding onto Andrea for balance. She stood right up from the wheelchair and if
the lift wasn’t right behind Andrea mom may even had taken a step or two. This was pretty exciting and we have tried a
few times since but no more luck yet but I do believe she will walk again. Other than not walking mom once again has
bounced back at least to where she was before Labor Day. Mom remains in good spirits most of the
time. She is easy to get laughing and
likes to give kisses. I’m not happy mom
has had to deal with Alzheimer’s but I am honored to have walked by her side through
it all even the hard times from the past.
She has proven to be a fighter bouncing back from near death several
times over the years. One thing that is
new over the past 2 months or so mom sometimes goes longer time without bowel
movements over 16 hours but then has a bowel movement every couple of hours. She
needs to be changed every couple of hours so we go through about 12 to 14
diapers a day even the few days she goes 16 hours without bowel movements. When mom is having problems with bowel
movements we give her more fruit and that seems to work. The number of diapers
started increasing like this n October.
Mom normally drinks between 50 and 60 ounces of fluid a day and around
1200 to 1400 calories a day. Mom this
month has been eating most of her meals in the wheelchair and at the dining
room table. She eats on average 80 percent of her meals with no one feeding
her. We did talk to my brothers Larry
and Paul and Paul’s wife Kay around Xmas on SKYPE. We did bring in the New Year together it was
just me and mom up at midnight.
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