alzheimers

My grandma has alzheimers and when she draws a profile of a person's face, she'll forget to draw the nose but will finish drawing the mouth the chin and the eyes. In recent months, it seems to be harder for her to complete her drawings as she seems a little confused as to what she has started to draw.

I like asking her to draw pictures, or ask her for the date, or show her pictures of when she was young and pretty. Sometimes she forgets who that beautiful woman in the black and white photo is.

My mom works at a alzheimers home. Anything specific you wanting to know? I'll ask her.

yeah, what specifically ar eyou looking for?
i had a close uncle who had it, and also one of my grandparents.

its a really hearbreaking thing to watch.

My step-grandma has it. She loves looking through old photo albums, but she always gets the people confused. She always thinks pictures of her when she was a child are pictures of her daughter, and vice versa. She still remembers who we are, but only just.

[QUOTE=elegantly_bitter;1051496]My step-grandma has it. She loves looking through old photo albums, but she always gets the people confused. She always thinks pictures of her when she was a child are pictures of her daughter, and vice versa. She still remembers who we are, but only just.[/QUOTE]

oh man.

[QUOTE=morey;1051503]oh man.[/QUOTE]

She lives in a nursing home, and some of the residents are exactly like people in [I]Choke[/I]. One woman always accuses my dad of stealing her cat, and there is another lady who stands by the fire exit, and every time somebody walks past she asks them to get her brother to come inside (apparently she never had a brother).

oofta

My Grandmother has it. When it was just starting, she would forget words. Like one time I asked her where my Mom was and she tried to tell me that she was out buying a Christmas tree. But she couldn't remember "Christmas tree." She described it as a bush that you put in the house.
My Grandmother has chain-smoked for as long as I can remember. Any attempts she made to stop were a joke. But one day, she simply forgot that she smoked. She doesn't smoke anymore.

The other thing, and I'm not 100% on this, is that you cannot be diagnosed with Alzheimers until you are dead. It takes an autopsy to be clinically diagnosed with it. Until then, you just exhibit the symptoms.

[QUOTE=Squeek;1051539]The other thing, and I'm not 100% on this, is that you cannot be diagnosed with Alzheimers until you are dead. It takes an autopsy to be clinically diagnosed with it. Until then, you just exhibit the symptoms.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, thats true. I read it in my Psych book. Alzheimers is an organic amnesia; it's due to physical changes in the brain, and it can't be tested with any of today's brain scanning techniques.

my uncle got pretty bad towards the end. he didnt know who we were, and accused us of stealing form him and stuff. he bit my mom once.
one morning before anyone had woken up, he left. w freaked out. called the cops. searched all day, and finally found him sitting in the graveyard behind the church he had attended as a child. he was so tired, and scared, but there was a flicker of recognition onhis face when i approached him and said his name. it was real, real sad.

[QUOTE=happy_hooker;1051544]my uncle got pretty bad towards the end. he didnt know who we were, and accused us of stealing form him and stuff. he bit my mom once.
one morning before anyone had woken up, he left. w freaked out. called the cops. searched all day, and finally found him sitting in the graveyard behind the church he had attended as a child. he was so tired, and scared, but there was a flicker of recognition onhis face when i approached him and said his name. it was real, real sad.[/QUOTE]
My grandma got violent sometimes too. She pushed another alzheimer patient on the ground once. Lucky they both had only minor bruises. She denied the whole incident afterwards. It was the nurse who told us.