When A Loved One Hass Alzheimer's

[Chad32]

I have a grandmother who keeps mixing up names. Sometimes when she's calling me to do something, she'll go down the list of male names until I finally respond to my name. One might think it's kind of funny, but it might also be a sign of a worse problem. She mixes up my niece's names as well, and who knows what she mixes up when I'm not there to hear it? I don't know what I'll do if she stops remembering who I even am. She's a fairly healthy woman, but her time is running out, and I worry about coping when she's gone.

So yeah, I can relate to this. I'm sure a lot of people can.

My mother does the same thing. She'll just go right down the list until she hits the right one. Humans are creatures of habit, and sometimes words just come out of our mouths before we think about what we're saying. This is 2017, yet I still sometimes say 19...oops.

Don't worry , Chad. Worrying about what you'll do when she's gone won't help you enjoy the time you have with her now.

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My great Aunt had it, but I think because she was diagnosed with it when I was quite young and I don't remember her being healthy it was something I was just always used to.

She'd constantly forget my name and get me and my brother confused, forget our ages, and it seemed like every time we spoke we were having the same 15 minute conversation over and over on a loop. Somehow I had a lot of patience with it though and rarely felt burdened talking to her, in the early stages at least. When she got worse it got harder to be around, but mostly because I just hated seeing her deteriorating and losing her ability to have any meaningful conversation at all. She eventually passed on when I was 17 (quite a long time after she was diagnosed actually, she lived for ages).

Hey Regina.

Well, I remember your name. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I just have to make sure to take times for her, as well as everyone else. Even younger family members, because we all know not everyone lives to a hundred.