Allowing Yourself to Feel the Joy of Cargiving

We are often constrained in our caregiving effort by our own inability to understand that Alzheimer's patients are capable of more than we can imagine.by Bob DeMarcoAlzheimer's Reading RoomI'm sitting here thinking about my eight and a half years as an Alzheimer's caregiver. Together Dotty and I traveled an interesting path -from Burden to Joy.As I think of the first eighteen months I now realize how emotionally painful it was. How painful it can be.Dementia Care, Always be Kinder than you FeelThere is no doubt that caring for anyone who is ill is burdensome. But caring for someone living with Alzheimer's or a related dementia can in someways seem tortuous if you allow it to be so.Learn More -How to communicate with dementia patientsTypically, Alzheimer's patients decline slowly over a long period of time.This period of time typically lasts 7 to 8 years.It took me a long time to understand this - even though I knew it. For the first couple of years when people would ask,how long do you think you will be doing this? I usually answered another year or two.Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading - This is a Free Service - Join NowHowever, once I decided, becamedetermined really,to keep Dotty at home to the very end if possible, my answer became very simple,at least one more day.That is howI began to envision our life, one day at a time.I decided along the way that Dotty and I would begin living our lives. Living the way we did before a diagnosis of AD.Living our life just like...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimers care Alzheimers Dementia care facilities for dementia patients dementia awareness dementia care family caregiving health help with dementia care senior care Source Type: blogs