Is Alzheimer's Everywhere?

My name is Bob DeMarco, I am an Alzheimer's caregiver. My mother Dorothy, now 93 years old, lives with Alzheimer's disease.

Is Alzheimer's everywhere?

I don't get out much these days. But, I make an effort to take my mother out every Friday night. We always go to a place where we can easily interact with people. This is part of the effort to keep my mother socialized and in the "world".

Last night, we went to Vic and Angelo's in downtown Delray Beach, Florida. A really fantastic venue. If you click on the image to the left, you'll hear a nice rendition of a song you might recognize.

Alzheimers Tests B12

The Framingham Offspring Study found that Vitamin B12 Deficiency is a big problem.

How bad?

As many as forty percent of the population might be at risk of a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Alzheimer's and Obsessive Behavior

Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with a recurring obsession Mom has about leaving the house to find her kids (us, when we were little)?

Why I Thanked a Caregiver

My older sister Linda Goyer Lane is part of the “sandwich generation”—people who care for their aging parents while simultaneously supporting children of their own.

Memory Loss

One of the first signs of dementia is short term memory loss. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia.

Alzheimer's Care, Life, Burden, Happiness, Joy

We are often constrained in our caregiving effort by our own inability to understand that Alzheimer's patients are capable of more than we can imagine.

I'm sitting here thinking about my eight and a half years as an Alzheimer's caregiver. Together Dotty and I traveled an interesting path - from burden to Joy.

As I think of the first eighteen months I now realize how emotionally painful it was. How painful it can be.

There is no doubt that caring for anyone who is ill is burdensome. But caring for someone living with Alzheimer's or a related dementia can in some ways seem tortuous if you allow it to be so.

Typically, Alzheimer's patients decline slowly over a long period of time. This period of time typically lasts 7 to 8 years.

It took me a long time to realize this, even though I knew it. For the first couple of years when people would ask, how long do you think you will be doing this? I usually answered another year or two.

However, once I decided, became determined really, to keep Dotty at home to the very end if possible, my answer became very simple, at least one more day.

That is how I began to envision our life, one day at a time.

Continued on the Next Page