my grandmother had alzheimer's but we're not sure exactly when it started - it really became prevalent after my grandfather died. we think he must have been covering up small things so that we didn't know. i think also that his death caused the disease to accelerate. however, from that point it was around 3 years before my grandmother died. i think one of the hardest things for me was not knowing whether it was going to be a good day or a bad one. there were phone calls all through the night accusing us of never visiting her (my mum is an only child & used to work full time but would cook a week's worth of meals on the weekend & we would drive them down to my gran each weekend, she lived about an hours drive away) & on the way to my 21st she had to ask to dad who's birthday it was & the name to write in the card (i was the only grandchild). those things were tough. in the end my parents moved my gran to a home that was a 5 minute drive away & we could visit often. plus we knew she was getting regular meals etc.
my gran was a lovely, gentle, vibrant woman who wore heels well into her 70's, still wore tailored skirts & would put on make up each day. i only had one set of grandparents in australia & i doted on her. it was tough to watch her struggle with the disease and see her change completely from the person i had grown up with, sharing secrets & teaching me to bake. she could be very aggressive/angry/nasty and that was so different from how she'd been before.
it was also really tough to watch my mum struggle with the emotion & strain of it all. as an only child she was carrying the burden herself (with support from dad & i, but it was still an enormous burden). she went from being a healthy size 12-14 to not eating & she lost so much weight she dropped to an unhealthy looking size 8. she also started gambling a bit & it was just a really tough time all around. i think lots & lots of support for the people carrying most of the burden is an absolute must - the disease definitely affects more than just the person with the disease.
i can't help with any medication that was prescribed, sorry.
Both My nanna and my papa have dementia. Papa is pretty much in the final stages now. He has no clue who anyone is or what is going on. My nana isn't quite that far gone yet. The one thiing people often don't realise is how nasty these usually kind and gentle people can become. My nana is a right piece of work at the moment. She it cruel and derogatory in almost everything she says about anyone. Even when she is complimenting it is a backhanded kind. It can make it very hard on those people trying to care for her. You need to grow thick skin and remember that it is the desease not them who is talking. My grandparents have always enjoyed a drink, but began to drink alot more when dementia started. Partly as a coping mechanism I think, but also because they would simply forget that that had already had a drink. So as the desease progressed they both became alcholics, which in turn made the desease progress faster.
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