My Family Died With Alzheimer’s, No

My Family Died With Alzheimer’s, Not From Alzheimer’s



At age 63, my wife died with Alzheimer’s disease and because of Alzheimer’s disease, but not from Alzheimer’s disease.
This is a statistical tragedy that has implications in understanding the true effects of Alzheimer’s disease on our nation and it needs greater attention.
My wife Rita was the greatest Registered Nurse in the world. With baccalaureate degree training she had long worked in critical care and trained with the pioneer cardiac surgeon Michael De Bakey in Texas.
She eventually came to work in Los Angeles at Martin Luther King hospital’s emergency room. This was during the cocaine wars of the late 1980s and King Hospital was a jumping place back then but she was more than up to the task.
As an RN, I too was working at MLK hospital as an emergency nurse and it is where we met — and in 1988, we were married.
When she was promoted to the head nurse position at Harbor General Hospital in Carson California, she had achieved her career goal of running the emergency department at a major urban trauma center.
After a few years she missed giving direct nursing care so she left administration and settled back into being just a great bedside nurse. If you were ever in an emergency situation you could get no better nursing care than from her.
That was until she started to slip.
At first the complaints were that she ‘couldn’t keep up’ with the work load. Changing hospitals and working environments didn’t help.
She eventually found her resume stained with 6 firings from nursing jobs in 3 years, the last for repeating medications she had recently given.
Lots of marriage stress and fights about why she couldn’t keep a job finally ended in a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease at age 57. Only in hindsight did I later recognize that her symptoms had actually begun at age 55 or before.
Recognizing the signs only long after they have begun is a typical story for families who have descended into the pit of dementia with someone they love.
Being only 49 years old at that time, I was way too young to retire so I kept working while she stayed home, but that was OK. We never did have children so it looked like was going to be just the two of us who would walk toward the stereotypical end of the story that happens to all Alzheimer’s couples.
I was preparing myself for her dying in a hospital bed guided by hospice care.
Together we went through the classical early stages of using memory aids such as notes and lists before switching to frequent calls from me during the work day to remind her of what she was supposed to be doing.
My coworkers used to laugh as I tried to instruct her over the telephone how to change the channel using the TV remote. Sometimes she would get it but a few times my father (fortunately my parents lived nearby) would have to come over and change the channel for her.
Eventually she could no longer prepare her own lunch regardless of how much preparation and laying things out I did the night before.
My mother was actively involved with our local senior center so she pulled some strings and, at age 58, got her enrolled into the lunch program.
I always kept $1 bills in her wallet so it would be easier for her to pay and not have to worry about counting change. She was still safely driving during this time but of course she eventually lost that skill too and with it her ability to attend the senior center.
I then had a problem. If she could not participate in the senior center, who would watch after her during the day?
At age 54 and with a mortgage and other bills, I still very much had to continue working. She was barely 62 at this time and likely had another decade before she would die from natural causes.
Ten years is too long to pay for residential care and still leave me with any kind of financial security so I had to explore other options.
At first my parents stepped in. Since she was acting like a child, maybe they could care for her like the grandchild we never gave them?
But spending 12 hours a day with an Alzheimer’s person is just too much for someone who is in their eighties. Eventually we all settled into a routine.
On my way to work in the morning I would drop my wife off at my parent’s house where they would give her breakfast and supervise her until the paid caregivers came to our house at 1 o’clock.
I would be home again by 7PM and we would repeat it all the next day. This went on for about a year and a half. However during this time my parents saw their own health problems worsen.
My 80 year old mother had bone on bone arthritis of her hips and back. Ideally she should have had joint replacements but because of other medical problems her chances for a successful surgery were very low.
So, my mother lived with continuous, chronic pain. She was taking Percocet and Morphine around the clock but it only made life ‘bearable’.
Normally very loving, her personality became as coarse and as irritable as you would expect from someone who is i

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 1:

Keluarga saya meninggal dengan penyakit Alzheimer's, tidak dari Alzheimer Pada usia 63, istri saya meninggal dengan penyakit Alzheimer dan karena penyakit Alzheimer, tetapi bukan dari penyakit Alzheimer.Ini adalah tragedi statistik yang memiliki implikasi dalam memahami efek benar penyakit Alzheimer pada bangsa kita dan membutuhkan perhatian yang lebih besar.Istri saya Rita adalah perawat terdaftar terbesar di dunia. Dengan baccalaureate gelar pelatihan dia telah lama bekerja di perawatan kritis dan dilatih dengan ahli bedah jantung perintis Michael De Bakey di Texas.Dia akhirnya datang untuk bekerja di Los Angeles di ruang gawat darurat rumah sakit Martin Luther King. Ini adalah ketika perang-perang kokain akhir tahun 1980an dan raja rumah sakit adalah tempat melompat kembali kemudian tapi dia lebih untuk tugas itu.Sebagai RN, saya juga bekerja di rumah sakit MLK sebagai perawat darurat dan itu mana kami bertemu- dan pada tahun 1988, kami menikah.Ketika ia dipromosikan ke posisi kepala perawat di rumah sakit umum pelabuhan di Carson California, ia telah mencapai tujuan karir nya menjalankan Departemen darurat di sebuah pusat besar trauma perkotaan.Setelah beberapa tahun ia merindukan memberikan langsung perawatan jadi dia meninggalkan administrasi dan menetap kembali menjadi hanya perawat samping tempat tidur besar. Jika Anda pernah dalam situasi darurat, Anda bisa mendapatkan tidak ada perawatan yang lebih baik daripada darinya.Itu sampai dia mulai tergelincir.Pada awalnya keluhan adalah bahwa ia ' tidak bisa mengikuti' beban kerja. Mengubah rumah sakit dan lingkungan kerja tidak membantu.She eventually found her resume stained with 6 firings from nursing jobs in 3 years, the last for repeating medications she had recently given.Lots of marriage stress and fights about why she couldn’t keep a job finally ended in a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease at age 57. Only in hindsight did I later recognize that her symptoms had actually begun at age 55 or before.Recognizing the signs only long after they have begun is a typical story for families who have descended into the pit of dementia with someone they love.Being only 49 years old at that time, I was way too young to retire so I kept working while she stayed home, but that was OK. We never did have children so it looked like was going to be just the two of us who would walk toward the stereotypical end of the story that happens to all Alzheimer’s couples.I was preparing myself for her dying in a hospital bed guided by hospice care.Together we went through the classical early stages of using memory aids such as notes and lists before switching to frequent calls from me during the work day to remind her of what she was supposed to be doing.My coworkers used to laugh as I tried to instruct her over the telephone how to change the channel using the TV remote. Sometimes she would get it but a few times my father (fortunately my parents lived nearby) would have to come over and change the channel for her.Eventually she could no longer prepare her own lunch regardless of how much preparation and laying things out I did the night before.My mother was actively involved with our local senior center so she pulled some strings and, at age 58, got her enrolled into the lunch program.I always kept $1 bills in her wallet so it would be easier for her to pay and not have to worry about counting change. She was still safely driving during this time but of course she eventually lost that skill too and with it her ability to attend the senior center.I then had a problem. If she could not participate in the senior center, who would watch after her during the day?At age 54 and with a mortgage and other bills, I still very much had to continue working. She was barely 62 at this time and likely had another decade before she would die from natural causes.Ten years is too long to pay for residential care and still leave me with any kind of financial security so I had to explore other options.At first my parents stepped in. Since she was acting like a child, maybe they could care for her like the grandchild we never gave them?But spending 12 hours a day with an Alzheimer’s person is just too much for someone who is in their eighties. Eventually we all settled into a routine.On my way to work in the morning I would drop my wife off at my parent’s house where they would give her breakfast and supervise her until the paid caregivers came to our house at 1 o’clock.I would be home again by 7PM and we would repeat it all the next day. This went on for about a year and a half. However during this time my parents saw their own health problems worsen.My 80 year old mother had bone on bone arthritis of her hips and back. Ideally she should have had joint replacements but because of other medical problems her chances for a successful surgery were very low.
So, my mother lived with continuous, chronic pain. She was taking Percocet and Morphine around the clock but it only made life ‘bearable’.
Normally very loving, her personality became as coarse and as irritable as you would expect from someone who is i