The most important for me is:
Why is my family having to go through my grandma's dementia at a much younger age than when her mother developed it?
It bothers me daily that dementia runs in my family, and I know I've blogged about it before, but there's never enough I could say about it. My grandma's definitely the one person whose trouble with dementia has really gotten me interested in working for the National Alzheimer's Association.
She was slow moving the other day and was acting unusual, so she was taken to the hospital. She's still there, and they found out she had a sinus infection, but with how damaged her brain is by dementia it effected her much more than it would you and me. Needless to say, this isn't something anyone wants to hear. But there's still some light in this. When she got to the hospital, she was obviously very confused, and so she was very angry that she was there. She said she refused to eat "until I go home." An hour later she ate her meal. She hasn't lost her zest yet!
Like this Christmas we were going to go to Sunday mass at her church but we found out she had already gone. When we told her that, she went, "Oh you guys are just telling me lies now. That's not fair." But it was the truth!! We all got a laugh out of it and she trusted us when my grandpa nodded that it was true. And on Christmas day we had to wear name tags, and when I told her who I was she just smiled and said, "Well that doesn't help me, I don't know names! ...Are you the married one?"
Love that lady.
That's what makes dementia such a difficult disease to deal with. On one side, it's devastating. But on the other, there's a lot of situations that really make you laugh and be grateful for the little things.
All in all, I'm realizing that there's only a handful of things that truly matter. Hopefully one day I can spread the word about Alzheimer's in her honor.
A picture of a normal brain vs. one with Alzheimer's
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