Alzheimer’s & the Shrinking Brain Observed
November 8, 2006 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
My mom stood in the doorway shuffling her feet but not moving. She looked at me and asked, “What do I do?”
I touched her right leg and answered, “Move this leg.”
“Oh,” she remarked, then lifted her foot. “Like this.” And she started walking across the room.
I’d often wondered, as Mother gradually lost her capabilities, if her brain was shrinking or ceasing to communicate to her. Eventually she couldn’t remember how to walk. From asking what to do, then walking, she shuffled. She go and stop, go and stop. And then never go again. This was the course with other movements and functions.
Her shrinking brain was no longer telling her what to do when she could no longer feed herself, speak, dress and undress herself, and take care of herself. Then at the end, her brain ceased the subconscious functions.
However, we learned to accept Mother at whatever stage she was in. If my family and I didn’t, we’d cause both Mother and ourselves undue stress and discouragment. We couldn’t change what was happening to Mother, so we learned to make memories of the small joys we experienced.
Yes, there are joys…small ones each day or each time we visited. They are what I remember now instead of all the distressful aspects of Mother’s journey through Alzheimer’s. I remember that person who taught us about life and illness, and then death, even though the teacher she once was had no awareness of it…as far as I know.
Mary Emma..I can so clearly remember when my mom first couldn’t walk…She and I had been some where and were walking across the parking lot to the car. I was holding her hand, as I often did, when all of a sudfden she just stopped. No warning, nothing, just not one more step. I looked at her and said …”Mom, why aren’t you walking?” She replied…”I don’t know how.” I had to explain to her, just like you did…”Pick up your foot and move it in front of the other.”
As you and I both know…Eventually, they forget all..
I run Sing-Alongs in Residential Homes and I have noticed when people who have Alzheimers stop and don’t know what to do, once they sing with me, they automatically lift their legs and start walking with me, as if the singing part of the brain has triggered something which tells them how to walk.
Molly Dee