The Checkbook
They say that old habits die hard, this certainly holds true with Alzheimer’s disease. The patterns that we find ourselves in for many years can become ruts, when we are no longer able to perform them efficiently and cannot accept/understand this. Pamela Kelly with Alzheimer’s Reading Room writes on the battle between her and her mother. Pamela’s mother had balanced her and her family’s monetary issues all her life. When her Mother started making serious errors on paper and checks start bouncing, Pamela resorts to giving her mother use old checkbooks, allowing her to feel more independent and accomplished. A very endearing story about going out of your way for those you love.
My sister took a box of checks from a closed account, checks bearing my mother’s name, address, and proper bank. Only the account number differed, and the sequence of checks. She substituted the dummy checks for the negotiable ones, and started a new register with my mother’s accurate current balance.
Immediately, this accomplished one important benefit. The checkbook wars between my sister and my mother ended. Now, my sister could pay the bills, reconcile the account, and keep Mom’s financial house in order – all offsite and online at my sister’s house rather than at my mother’s kitchen table.
A huge charade ensued – all of my mother’s experience of managing the checking account remained the same: receiving the bills into her home, sitting down with my sister to write the checks and enter them into the register, recording her Social Security and other deposits.
The difference was that my sister was no longer striving for accuracy. She could relax into the charade and simply be with my mother through the process, validating Mom’s decisions and actions rather than “correcting” them.
The reduced conflict was beneficial to Mom, and the lessened stress was a boon to my sister. Perseverating over money and the checkbook was much less noticeable in our daily phone calls. This simple decision – to substitute checks from a dormant account for the real McCoys – eliminated a trigger for upsets.
Read More at Alzheimer’s Reading Room
Alzcare in New Braunfels. Caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas in comfortable, home settings.
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
Years Later
The results of a seemingly minor to moderate head injury are not usually thought to be deadly. Recent reports indicate that the impact of head injuries, and especially concussions, are perhaps more serious long term than we had thought them to be. Most dangerous of all is an occupation/hobby that often has repeated concussions, like a boxer or a football player.
Head trauma has been found to be associated with a motor neuron disease. Repeated blows to the head may cause nerve degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The nerve damage acts like a domino effect, one nerve is damaged and others follow. Experts in brain injury said the study, published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, pointed to new areas of research and possible ways to prevent long-term damage from concussions.
AlzCare provides caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas.
| | | | | Ten Symptoms
.jpg)
Fighting a disease that takes it’s toll on your mind is a very difficult thing, not only because it proves hard to cure, but because it is not always a tangible thing. It’s not easy to diagnose. Often, early onset Alzheimer’s goes undiagnosed. Early onset diagnosis and prevention measures are really the only “cures” for Alzheimer’s that we have. A delay in onset is the best possible outcome. Most people with loved ones afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease look back and realize cues in behavior that indicate the start of the disease.
Often personality/social changes are the first time when loved ones begin to take symptoms seriously. People often hear/observe things that they believe are just symptoms of age, when in reality Alzheimer’s has already started to take it’s toll. Provided in the article are various examples of mild dementia or early stage Alzheimer’s disease. These include misplacing belongings in odd places, becoming more withdrawn from social situations, and irritation or anger in response to memory lapses.
Alzcare in New Braunfels. Caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas in comfortable, home settings.
| | | | | Brain Stimulation
When you hear the words “brain stimulation”, reading or puzzles may come to mind. Several trials of deep brain stimulation have been going on, results point towards beneficial results for early onset Alzheimer’s patients. These tests began working with overweight patients as an appetite suppressant. A small electrode is implanted into the brain in the area that controls appetite. To their surprise, lost memories from over 30 years ago started coming to the patient.
Significant improvement in memory tests was found. In many patients cognitive decline was slowed, and in some patients there was cognitive improvement. It’s questionable whether the benefits are worth the risks, as there are many serious ones. This is an invasive procedure that can cause bleeding if insertion does not go smoothly. Further trials have begun.
"We don't want to over interpret the results and I agree with the cautions on the one hand, but on the other hand the fact that the PET-scanning data looks so good seems pretty exciting to me," said Dr. Richard Lipton, an attending neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City and principal investigator of the Einstein Aging Study who was not involved in the deep brain stimulation research.
"Alzheimer's is not a disorder where you break even. It's a disorder where you decline . . . This is not the natural history of Alzheimer's. A successful treatment will leave you one year later where you were when you started," he added.
Deep brain stimulation is already used for people with other neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Parkinson's.
The way the Alzheimer's research came into being was a study in serendipity. In 2003, the same research group was working in a different area: using deep brain stimulation in an attempt to control appetite in an obese patient. The results had an unexpected benefit.
AlzCare provides caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas.
| | | | | On Repetition
When short term memory is lost or in a process of decline, it is easy to fall into patterns on repetition. For a person with Alzheimer’s disease, it is very common. It can be frustrating for a caregiver when questions, statements, and behavior fall into repetition. A personal take on this problem by Bob Demarco really puts the issue into perspective. Many caregivers face this issue.
Learning how to better tolerate and deal with this behavior in turn helps to improve upon it. The most effective and perhaps simple change that can help the situation is by keeping the answers to these questions simple. Keep it positive/neutral, don’t remind a loved one that you have already told them, just answer.
This helps control your frustration, and helps them to feel their question has been answered. Attentions are not drawn to their memory problems.
Read More at Sodalis Elder Living
AlzCare provides caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas.
| | | | | 
