Interview with Lauren Kessler who wrote the book ‘Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s’

 Keep Alzheimer’s patients from viewing the news on TV, mentions Jacqueline Marcell, author of Elder Rage.  She relates how the news can confuse and alarm those with failing menories or lack of understanding of place and time. 
 In her post, Don’t Let Loved Ones with Dementia Watch the News!, Ms. Marcell gives the example of how watching the news about southern California’s fires affected her.  Then she mentions when seeing the events of 9/11 on television saddened her, but confused and alarmed her mother.
Movies and television shows will do the same…when what they see gets “twisted into their reality.”
“Put on a beautiful romance or an …read more

                   
Carol O’Dell visits us today at Alzheimer’s Notes to share her thoughts concerning Mothering Mother, a humorous and heartbreaking memoir about caring for her mother who developed Parkinson’s disease and a heart condition.  Carol faced situations many of us have in caring for a family member afflicted with Alzheimer’s.  The world of caregiving has many commonalities and brings us together to share, to cry, to laugh…and then realize, “It’s okay.  Someone else felt like this, too.  I’m not alone.”
(If you’d like to read an excerpt from Mothering Mother, visit her web site.  )
Mary Emma – People often ask …read more

Kristina Chew’s post, All Adventure, All the Time, at Autism Vox about her experiences with her son Charlie got me thinking about the adventures of living or caring for an Alzheimer’s patient.  Our life with Mother and Auntie certainly became a new experience and an adventure.
However, the adventure had its positive aspects as well as its frustrating ones.  I look back, with the years separating me from the frustrations, and now see the rewards.  Time somehow has a way of filtering our the negative, if we’ll but let it.
*We learned to laugh at ourselves and circumstances we couldn’t control.
*We learned …read more

This week at Alzheimer’s Notes, we’re having two guests.
Monday, Sept. 10, Yvonne Russell , from Grow Your Writing Business, will write a guest post.  After I posted, Would You Like to Open a Home-Based Alzheimer’s Bookstore,  there were questions regarding the establishment of one.  So Yvonne is answering some of those in her post.
On Friday, September 14, I shall interview author Carol Odell.  She wrote the book, Mothering Mother, and is on a virtual blog tour this month. 
Incidentally, Carol is running a contest connected with her blog tour.  Learn more about this and how you can enter by visiting her web …read more

When we can learn from Alzheimer’s patients/victims what it’s like to live with the disease…what they encounter, what frustrates them, what annoys them, what pleases them, how we can best interact with them…we’ll know much better how to care for them. 
I so often tried to discover what it was like inside Mother’s mind and thus understand what she was facing…where she was (what era) that day, who she thought I was, what she liked and disliked.  If we could have talked about her disease while she was able to communicate verbally, it would have helped us both.  But I didn’t …read more

Joseph Voight’s grandmother, Dixie Morton Vaughn, has Alzheimer’s disease. And for the past four years, she has been cared for by Joseph’s mother.
Joseph started writing a journal about his thoughts and experiences with his grandmother’s disease. And from this, a hand written book ‘My Grandma has Alzheimer’s too’ emerged.
The manuscript has yet to find a publisher. But if you want to see a page or two, check out the full article Helping Kids Cope.

              As we approach World Health Day, April 7, we realize that Alzheimer’s has become a world wide concern.  It may not be a contageous disease, but it affects people and families everywhere. 
Liz has called attention to people and projects around the globe in previous posts here, such as You Are Not Alone: Alzheimer’s Stories from Around the World.  I posted about Queen Silvia of Sweden addressing Alzheimer’s at a conference in Japan.  Some of her concern stems from the fact her mother had Alzheimer’s.
So we see this disease is not merely the concern of one country or one continent.  …read more

Q – After reading the post about the 10 most common symptoms of Alzheimer’s, a reader asked how one knows when these are merely absentmindedness and not Alzheimer’s.
A – Unfortunately there isn’t an absolute answer or diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.  However, if these symptoms persist and aren’t something occasional, check with your doctor, an organization like the Alzheimer’s Association, www.alz.org  (for further information), or other Alzheimer’s specialists.
My mother at first exhibited absentmindedness which my father recognized as something different than merely forgetting.  Because I didn’t live with her and saw her about once a month at that time, I simply thought it …read more

I’ve had requests for updates of the book about my mother’s journey through Alzheimer’s, When We Become the Parent to Our Parents.  A publisher has asked me to expand the book and include a section of coping with life after one’s family member is gone.
I wrote this book while Mother was alive and hoped, by sharing her sister’s and her story, I could encourage others coping with Alzheimer’s in the family.  It also was a tribute to these valiant ladies, Esther Rider and Mary Place, who lives I wanted to be significant and remembered.
So I’m in the midst of working on …read more