Where Did My Dad Go?

 Good morning.... Just came back from helping my parents put up their artificial tree.  That was the easy part -  it seems every time I stop by their home (which seems to be daily) things seem to just slide down a steeper slope. At first it is difficult to see the changes that are taking place, they seem to be so gradual. Eventually you reach a point where the changes seem to slap you in the face to make sure that you realize how bad things are getting. Today was one of those days. Dad loves to watch sports on TV, baseball in the summer and hockey in the winter. He was able to navigate his television with no problems and would often be able to tell anyone when a game was on... even if I did not think their was a game! Eventually this began to change. Dad could no longer find games on television. He was not sure which channels the games would be on, even which channels would be showing a game. I made them a list of the sports channels theat are available on their TV and mo...

 This disease is awful. My father is going down a slippery slope and he is pulling my mother along behind him.  She is one year younger than he is and her health is starting to fail. A lot of it is because of the stress that watching and helping my father. It hurts to wake up every morning and not being sure what I am going to see when I stop by to visit. I talk to  mom every night to see how things went and I keep a log of what is happening. I am lucky that they only live a few blocks away! I have found an Alzheimer's/Dementia page on Facebook and have started following. IT is so difficult to read because it is World Wide and nobody  knows what advice to give because they are not sure of what supports are available in any one part of the world. So many people are struggling watching their loved on (LO) suffer. I want to say we are lucky as we do not see many of the behaviors that others have to deal with. We are not lucky because we are watching my dad no longer be ...

 It was not much of a shock when we were told about Dad's diagnosis. We knew that he was really struggling with conversations. We also knew he was having difficulty driving. When he had an accident both mom's and my first question was 'Did he cause it?' I guess we both hoped it would be caught by the police and that would start the process. That did not happen - Dad was not in the wrong in the accident, although we are not sure what had caused the problem.   I finally made a phone call and asked for some help. I am not sure of the sequence of events but I know it started with a phone call. I contacted LHIN (Local Health Integrated Network) and they arranged for someone to visit my parents in their home to test dad. The tester recommended that dad stop driving (she could not take his license - only the doctor could do that) and sent the report to the doctor. When we saw the doctor, who came to my hometown from a larger centre, we were given a diagnosis of Alzheimer's...

 My Father has Alzheimer's. He was diagnosed Five years ago but as I look back we have seen signs for many years.  I ignored the signs and refused to disrupt  my family's life. It was a huge mistake, I am  paying the price now as we attempt to place Dad and Mom is struggling to deal with him at home. We were a typical Canadian family. Dad worked as an electrician in a Chemical Mill, Mom as a meat clerk in a grocery store.  I was an only child and sailed through life freely not worrying about much. I got a good education and had an entire career as an educator. I got married to a wonderful supportive woman and have three wonderful children. I am now retired from my career and a full time caregiver for both my parents.  As I look back there are a number of things I should not have ignored that may have helped in my journey. A few years ago we started to see Dad struggle with driving his car. Dad was involved in an accident 14 years ago and when the police inf...