7th July 2007
The hearing aid story took me back to about 7 years ago when my dear mother in law first starting showing some early signs of dementia. She already wore a hearing aid and my son took her to get an upgraded one.
We were visiting one day and he noticed she had the old hearing aid in, though it had no battery in it, and she had no idea where the new one was and refused to give up the old one when he asked for it. She is a real sweet pea so it was so strange to see her put up such a fight over something that seemed so silly, but I already knew things weren't right with her and suspected dementia/alzheimers.
My husband is their only child and is very close to his parents, so it was heartbreaking to see him get aggravated with his poor mother over something she couldn't control. We had just moved his parents to the town where we live because I was pregnant with our first child. I'm sure it added to his poor mom's confusion, but I still think it was the best decision, because we were able to look after them and spend lots of time together. And once they moved here, we found a wonderful geriatric dr. for both of them, who diagnosed her and started her on Aricept, which I believe really gave us a blessed 4 or 5 years where the progress of the disease was fairly slow and she got to know her granddaughter, who will have wonderful memories of her beautiful grandmother and know how much she adored her.
Sadly, the last year of so her decline hastened, and in March she suffered a stroke and lost much of the use of her right side, so we were not not able to care for her at home any longer. But we were fortnuate to find a very good nursing home just a 10 minute drive from here, so I'm very grateful for that.
The hearing aid story just made me look back on what a long, sad journey it's been. We did our best and I truly know my dear MIL knows that, but my heart is broken that she has this burden to bear.
Hugs to all and a Happy Weekend!
Shell
We were visiting one day and he noticed she had the old hearing aid in, though it had no battery in it, and she had no idea where the new one was and refused to give up the old one when he asked for it. She is a real sweet pea so it was so strange to see her put up such a fight over something that seemed so silly, but I already knew things weren't right with her and suspected dementia/alzheimers.
My husband is their only child and is very close to his parents, so it was heartbreaking to see him get aggravated with his poor mother over something she couldn't control. We had just moved his parents to the town where we live because I was pregnant with our first child. I'm sure it added to his poor mom's confusion, but I still think it was the best decision, because we were able to look after them and spend lots of time together. And once they moved here, we found a wonderful geriatric dr. for both of them, who diagnosed her and started her on Aricept, which I believe really gave us a blessed 4 or 5 years where the progress of the disease was fairly slow and she got to know her granddaughter, who will have wonderful memories of her beautiful grandmother and know how much she adored her.
Sadly, the last year of so her decline hastened, and in March she suffered a stroke and lost much of the use of her right side, so we were not not able to care for her at home any longer. But we were fortnuate to find a very good nursing home just a 10 minute drive from here, so I'm very grateful for that.
The hearing aid story just made me look back on what a long, sad journey it's been. We did our best and I truly know my dear MIL knows that, but my heart is broken that she has this burden to bear.
Hugs to all and a Happy Weekend!
Shell