Imagine yourself with alsheimers.?

Question:Every time you return to a lucid state, in the early stages of the disease, there is a loving family member to comfort you, and explain what happened in the blanks of your memory, and how you got where you are. As time progresses, the lucid periods come less and less often. Then one day you wake up from the nightmare, and no one is there, you are in a strange place. You ask the people around you where you are, but no one has an answer that makes any sense to you. You call a phone number that you struggled to remember, the voice that answers is familiar and comforting, but refuses to come get you. The explanation of why you are there is that you have been abandoned, your family can no longer care for you. They visit occasionally, but the disease is not on a schedual, lucid periods are rare, you rarely even recognize them. You live in a nightmarish fear of everything. Even with your family there, you will die alone and scared.
Q:Is a life like that, worth living in the hope of a cure?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Every time you return to a lucid state, in the early stages of the disease, there is a loving family member to comfort you, and explain what happened in the blanks of your memory, and how you got where you are. As time progresses, the lucid periods come less and less often. Then one day you wake up from the nightmare, and no one is there, you are in a strange place. You ask the people around you where you are, but no one has an answer that makes any sense to you. You call a phone number that you struggled to remember, the voice that answers is familiar and comforting, but refuses to come get you. The explanation of why you are there is that you have been abandoned, your family can no longer care for you. They visit occasionally, but the disease is not on a schedual, lucid periods are rare, you rarely even recognize them. You live in a nightmarish fear of everything. Even with your family there, you will die alone and scared.
Q:Is a life like that, worth living in the hope of a cure?

Right now, i am taking care of my mom. She is 86 years old with alzheimers. Everyday it gets harder for me to watch her like this. She forgets things as fast as i tell her and i have to repeat things constantly. I could not and would not ever put her in a home. I have seen first hand alot of these old age homes and they really dont take care of the elderly like they should. This is why, when i post questions about math problems, i feel funny asking..but i have alot to deal with. I have to make sure she eats, takes her meds and now that the doc found a blood clot in her heart, she is on blood thinners. I have to give her that pill at night, after 5 pm. I babysit my grandkids during the day and take care of my mom at night. On the weekends, i clean her house and do her wash. It kills me to watch her like this knowing there is nothing i can do for her. She is my mother and we only get one. If tables were turned i know she would be taking care of me. Would i want to live like that? I honestly dont know. All i know is that there are so many older people that get pushed into homes and never see there family members again. They are the forgotten ones. I dont want to be forgotten. I would like to be remembered for things that i have done. It is a disease that takes over our minds...but our hearts are still there. I will make sure my mom does not die alone or scared. I will make sure she knows that she was loved.

to me? no

to someone else? probably, that's up to them

I do not consider that living. At that point, I would call it quits and any organs worth using are up for grabs.

No, probably not, although it may depend on the individual. My great-grandmother became extremely senile, unable to recognize her own family members. She wasn't happy being disoriented. Finally after years, it was a blessing when she got pneumonia, and the family doctor kept her comfortable but did not treat the pneumonia in an aggressive manner. This was in a small town forty years ago. I doubt that a doctor could make that choice-with the family's consent-today.

This is a hugely hot topic.
Alzheimer's Dz is caused (best we know) predominantly by chemical changes taking place in the brain, where electrical currents cannot synapse across certain barriers for the mind to function. Symptoms appear as forgetfulness. Very irritating to the person having the experience. Many manage with help of family. Others are more severe and require constant care (or they'll end up at Safeway Supermarket with $2,000 worth of groceries for a reason that know not why . . .or even how they got there!)

Life really DOESN'T feel like it's worth living, I'm sure. Nothing more frustrating than forgetting even your last name or how to brush your teeth.

Thing is . . . as humble human beings . . . it's simply NOT OUR CALL TO MAKE!! We can't just "end someone's life" for them because they've lost the quality they once had. That's God's Job!!

Who knows. If given some fingerpaints and supervision and a large mural sized paper . . . a Masterpiece just might come of it!!

Maybe man, himself has escalated this disease/condition, due to all the extra "man-made chemicals" and altering of our homeland, planet earth. I say this because, as in Grandpa's old, 1972 Merck Manual (12th edition) which he used in his practice . . . well . . . Alzheimer's Dz (or AD) isn't even mentioned in the index. Senility and Dementias are listed under Psychoses Associated with Organic Brain Syndromes (see pa 1406, 1394)

In closing, I'd like to say to remember: All of Life is a Lesson. We don't always have a chalkboard in front of us, but regardless of where we are at physically or mentally (or even spiritually) . . . Life is a Lesson to Learn. Take each experience, however exciting or gut-wrenching, with gusto. Learn to Love.

My mother died from Alzheimer's & Parkinson after living in a nursing home for about 10 years. We simply couldn not care for her 24/7. And in having seen her go thru her changes mentally & physically, if I found myself in the situtation you described, I'd pop a cap on myself in a heart beat whether it's a gun or jumping out a window or cutting my wrists.