November is designated as the month
to raise Alzheimer’s awareness and to honor caregivers. I am going to focus on
Alzheimer’s caregivers.
Taking care of a person with
Alzheimer’s or other dementias is an all-consuming undertaking. In the US, more
than 16 million family members and friends provide unpaid care for their loved
ones with dementia. They provide 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care at a value
of $232 billion. About half of the unpaid caregivers provide care for four or
more years. Alzheimer’s disease is called the “long goodbye” for a reason.
The average life expectancy after
diagnosis is between eight and ten years, but some people live twenty years or
more with the disease. Diagnosis takes an average of 2.8 years. Jim’s diagnosis
of an Alzheimer’s type of dementia was the result of the process of
elimination. Especially at his age (49) an entire battery of test results were
examined for a different cause for his confusion. It was critical that we ruled
out treatable conditions: drug interactions, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid
problems, depression, and low blood sugar.
The emotional stress of caregiving
is pretty much off the charts for 60 percent of the caregivers. This emotion is
followed closely by depression. The entire process of caregiving was a ten-year
rollercoaster for me. We had good times, keeping our lives as close to normal
as possible, followed by crisis after crisis, completing the downward spiral
from end stages to the inevitable conclusion.
The object of this article is not to
sugarcoat caregiving, but to bring awareness to how difficult it is to care for
another person. I had an exceptional amount of family and friends supporting
Jim and me. I was in my mid-forties, and that made me wonder—how could an
elderly person provide care for a spouse without that support and without the
resilience of a younger caregiver?
The long-term commitment of an
Alzheimer’s caregiver causes medical problems for the caregiver. I was one of
the caregivers guilty of not taking as good of care of myself as I should have.
My company required annual health fairs and my test results fell within the
heart-attack-waiting-to-happen category. I don’t know if I would have made it
through if I hadn’t changed my ways about my own health.
If you are a caregiver, I urge you
to take care of yourself from the beginning to the end. Contact the Alzheimer’s Association and join a support
group to learn from the experiences of others, to have an opportunity to vent,
and increase your circle of friends. Visit www.alz.org
for vital information about strategies to help yourself and your loved one.
If you know a caregiver, don’t
abandon them. Provide emotional support, include them in fun activities, and
let them know that you love them. Help them to the best of your ability to do
so.
Caregiving is a marathon, not a
sprint. I urge family caregivers to never give up on life and happiness. Find hobbies
and social engagements that make you happy, and rid yourself of obligations
that add to your stress. Draw on your inner strength and spirituality to help
you live life to the fullest.
Copyright © November 2018 by L.S.
Fisher
#ENDALZ
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