Alzheimer's is a very overlooked disease in the younger generations today.
I wanted to write about Alzheimer's because my great-grandmother had the disease and no one will ever understand the disease unless they experience it right in front of them. Many people just believe that as people get older they start to forget. This is true, but Alzheimer's is to the extreme.
This is my experience with Alzheimer's.
My great-grandmother was the stereotypical older woman. She went to bingo night wither her friends, she knit, she crocheted, she played cards, she was very into her hair and makeup, she knew how to cook like no other. Every Monday, her and my grandmother would come over to my house for dinner and we would all eat together. One of the days, she didn't seem like her self. She was going to the bathroom a lot, she would forget why she was in there... She was very tired and didn't want to come eat dinner, which was weird because she loved her food. This is when we knew something was wrong.
Not too long later, my great-grandmother had a stroke in her sleep.
From here on, we lost what we all used to know as Nana. In one night, my great-grandmother went from perfectly fine to stage three Alzheimer's. She could no longer live on her own and had to move in with her daughter who is my grandmother. She would always fall and she was always very tired. I remember one night very clearly. At this point, I did not understand about the disease and I thought it was funny.
She kept talking about stuff in the past. I remember this conversation so clearly... She said things like: “I need to go see Jamie’s baby." At this point, my baby cousin was already about a year old. She also said, “Do you know when the taxi is coming?” When she was younger, her dad was a taxi driver. My mom responded and said, “Dad is still working he will be home later.” I found it so weird how she kept asking questions that did not apply to time right now. My mother, later on, explained to me that your brain is like a film and with Alzheimer's, your brain becomes like a scratched DVD where it keeps replaying one part of the movie. This went on for a while. She would always fall and couldn't get back up, she lost all her balance, but this they say can be from the stroke.
She then had to be put into a nursing home.
This was a very sad experience for my family. At this point, she had stage four Alzheimer's. She couldn’t do anything on her own. The first three to four weeks of living in the nursing home, she wasn't as bad as what she got to. After those three to four weeks, she was totally lost. She became violent and would punch and try to hit people. She wouldn't remember family members most of the time. She wouldn't remember her everyday nurse for a very long time.
She had a nurse who stayed with her before she came to the nursing home and she wouldn't remember her either. She would scream and curse which is so unusual for my great-grandmother because before the worst thing I ever heard her say was "Shut up." Everyday she basically got worse. It was my last time seeing her and the last thing I heard her say was, “Tell the kids I love them, tell Ashley, Brianna, Zach, and Michael that I will never forget about them.” This was amazing to my whole family because she remembered not only us, but our names. Not too long later, she passed away. She died a week before her birthday.
Alzheimer's is a lot worse than everyone thinks.
For me, it has caused me to not be able to look at the elderly without crying. It’s crazy to see how someone of a wonder life can forget absolutely everything so quickly. I encourage people to get tested for this disease as they start to get older.
I hope that they find a cure soon. Alzheimers is a serious problem and the word about it must get out.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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