July 4th memories often entertain the Alzheimer’s parent and help you preserve your family heritage…for yourself, your children and future generations.  Since Alzheimer’s patients like to reminisce, you may be able to do this with them about memories of this holiday.

Image: sxc.hu

• Record the memories
• Jot them down
• Pull out pictures and have the patient tell you about them (if they’re able)
• Make some scrapbook pages with these memories
• Involve the whole family so they can have memories of doing this with  the Alzheimer’s family member
• Take the patient to July 4th events if they’re capable
• Prepare foods the family member did or enjoyed on these occasions in earlier years
• Join in any July 4th activities at the nursing home, if your family member resides there.

What do you do to remember the Fourth of July as you parent your parent?

Do you take statins? If so, you could also be fighting off Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers in The Netherlands showed that statins, normally taken to lower bad cholesterol, can also protect nerve cells from becoming damaged, as occurs in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

That nerve cell protection is believed to lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. According to Alzheimer’s Association, as many as 5.3 million people in the US live with the disease.

In animal experiments conducted in the lab at University of Groningen, the statin Lovastatin prevented nerve cells from dying and thereby prevented the loss of memory capacity.

The research was published in the June issue of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

(Image via stock.xchng)

Coloring pictures in coloring books, as well as drawing and coloring my own, occupied me extensively when I was a child.  My daughter and grandchildren have enjoyed coloring, as do many of the youngsters I have in school when I substiute teach.

I’ve also found this a great way to encourage children’s fine muscle coordination.  As I’ve substituted in kindergarten this year, and followed the youngsters throughout the school year, I’ve seen a great improvement in their ability to stay within the lines, even with small pictures.

Coloring is more than simply busy work. It’s a way to develop children’s coordination, a form of rehab after accidents and strokes, keeps arthritic fingers active, and often leads to a hobby in some form of art.  With Alzheimer’s patients, it helps keep their minds and fingers active.

There’s an interesting article, Coloring Pictures Is a Lot More Than Just Fun, at Better Parenting that explains the benefits of coloring for your youngsters…for learning and for fun.  I’ve even sat down with youngsters and colored, trying out various drawing/coloring items and materials.

It can become a grand experience in artistic discovery as well as muscle development and coordination.

How have you used coloring and art in your family or at school?

(Amazon image)

Scrapbooking and relating family stories appeal to many Alzheimer’s patients.  Even though they can’t completely follow these activities, whether in their home or a nursing home, they do enjoy the times they are focused.

Image: sxc.hu

I’ve taught scrapbooking and family history activities at a local nursing home and enjoyed this experience as much as the patients seemed to.

We made a scrapbook with a page for each resident who attended the sessions.  Using photos taken by the nursing home staff over a period of time, an activity coordinator and I arranged the pictures, chatted with the residents about them, and encouraged each patient to choose colors and embellishments.  Each did as much or as little as they could.

We kept the procedure very simple. using materials I compiled.  I also provided a family history questionnaire that we filled out with the patients as they finished the scrapbooking page.  They really enjoyed chatting about the memories these questions evoked.

The scrapbook we produced was kept at the nursing home, as something the residents could look at again and again.

Does anyone have similar experiences they would like to share?

(I do put together the supplies for these scrapbooking and family histories, along with instructions, so others, in their home or in nursing homes, can become involved in activities of their own.)

The post I wrote about resources for Alzheimer’s caregivers, Thursday Thirteen - 13 Blogs About Alzheimer’s,  resulted in numerous comments and caregivers sharing information.

Image: sxc.hu

They even provided some more blogs for caregivers.

If you’re looking for information and just a place to get together with other caregivers, for comfort and encouragement, perhaps you’d like to check out these blogs.  Also, you may find tips on making life more enjoyable for the person with Alzheimer’s.

If you have any more resources, do share them with us.  Caregivers need all the encouragement and support they can find during their journey with their Alzheimer’s patient.

I discovered that my grandchildren had no prejudice when it came to the elderly with Alzheimer’s.  They accepted my mother as she was. 

The fact that she might not know them seemed to have no bearing upon the youngsters, who began visiting her at the nursing home when they were 2- and 6-years old.  They were 8 and 12 when she passed away. 

Image:sxc.hu

To the younger child, Mother’s ramblings were a language he said only he understood.  “Grandma talk to me,” he said, when I wondered what she was saying. 

When asked why she visited a great grandmother who didn’t know her, my granddaughter once replied, “Because it makes Grandma happy.”

Often we think we must shelter the young from illnesses like Alzheimer’s and other conditions of the elderly.  However, these are a fact of life and often seem easier for youngsters to accept than adults.

My mother has been gone for a number of years, yet her great grandchildren remember her with fondness and talk of our visits to the nursing home, highlighted by tea parties.

Another form of parenting consists of caring for one’s parents or elderly relatives. You’ve gone from being parented to parenting that older person.   Most caregivers go into this stage of life without adequate preparation or support.

Finding caregiver support groups in your area, or online, can be a challenge.  Here are a few suggestions.

Check out the following places in your community to see if they have a support group or know of any:

• Home health agencies
• Senior Center
• Local Hospital
• Local Nursing homes
• State Alzheimer’s Association
• State Department of the Elderly or Family Services
• Others caring for elderly parents or spouses

If there is nothing in your community, the groups meet when you’re at work, or you live too far from an organized community, you might want to check out online support groups.  Also, by reading blogs about Alzheimer’s caregiving and leaving comments that the blogger and other readers might answer, you’ll feel more connected with the caregiver community and not so alone.

What suggestions do you have? Are there particular caregiver groups/organizations you find particularly helpful.

Laughter is good for us, whether we’re in business or not.  However, at Woman on Business, I found an interesting post, Laughter is Serious Business by Chrysty Beverley Fortner.

Image: sxc.hu

Chrysty tells us that if you make her laugh, she’ll do business with you. So perhaps this is a good tip to keep in mind if you’re in a craft (or any other) business.  She also mentions how laughter is good for health, stress relief and your life in general.

I know when my mother had Alzheimer’s, laughter helped my husband, Mother and me get through this difficult time.  When Mother commented, “We don’t laugh enough,” I realized that, even though this was a serious illness, we needed to take time for humor.

How are you incorporating laughter into your life and business?

Let me know if , when you take Chrysty’s advice and laugh with your customers, you have more success.

One of my readers commented on my post, Parenting More Than Our Children, that few things prepare us for the role reversal of caring for our parents.  Often we’re caring for our own children, too.

I agree.  I wasn’t prepared, and it seems so strange at first. However, I learned to enjoy Mother and Auntie as they journeyed through their Alzheimer’s world. There were frustrations, disappointments, but rewards, too. My daughter and her children’s lives are richer, as well, by caring for these ladies. The memories are often bittersweet, but this was a stage in their lives that I hoped we made easier for them.

Some tips on how to prepare yourself:

• Once I realized I’d be caregiver for Mother and Auntie, I took advantage of workshops and lectures offered by a local nursing home.  This gave me insight into various aspects of caregiving.
• I found a support group.  Actually in my case, it was my neighbor who was caregiver for her great aunt.  We discussed the challenges, the joys, and discovered resources.
• I tried to learn all I could from reading and workshops. and look at the world through  Mother and Auntie’s eyes.  They taken ill with Alzheimer’s before there was much on the Internet.  Today, check out Internet resources for information.
• Start your own blog;  visit other web sites and blogs to learn how others are coping.
• Communicate with family members as much as possible and enlist their help.  Discuss the situation and your feelings.

How are you preparing for parenting your parents, spouse or elderly family members?

Througout our lifetime, we often end up caring for, or “parenting,” more than our children. I became the caretaker for my mom and my aunt.  I helped care for my dad and my uncle.  I assisted with my mother-in-law.

We don’t think, when we’re raising our children that we may become caregivers for those who once cared for us.  We don’t make plans for this and it often hits unawares.

Auntie became my responsibility after my mom could no longer care for her.  She lived with my parents for more than a year when another relative couldn’t cope with Auntie’s Alzheimer’s forgetfulness and wandering.  Then Father died and Mother’s Alzheimer’s became more pronounced.

Because Auntie was a widow with no children, she became my responsibility.  I suppose I could have ignored the situation, but somehow it was something I couldn’t do.  During most of the time she was my responsibility, she was in a nursing home, so I didn’t have the “hands on” care I did with Mother.  But making decisions when she was ill or in the hospital, keeping in touch with nurses (I lived 275 miles away), and visiting whenever I could did become my role.

I cared for Mother in her home, in our home, and was responsible for overseeing her care in a nursing home for 8 years.  During this time I was helping my children with grandchildren.

However, all of them, no matter what age or generation, brought rewards to my life midst any frustrations.  Realizing that parenting encompasses more than caring for children will help you as you assume parent and elder relative care.