Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Norm 22

Guilty  - Alzheimer's and Dementia

Josie in Podunk

Yes.  A life sentence.

And, a part of life over which we have little to no control.

All we can do is our best to roll with it.

Paris20

Norm, I have often said that in any other context, the years of dealing with this monstrous disease would otherwise be considered torture. It IS torture. The moodiness, the messes, the constant repetition, the inevitable decline and destruction. I have dealt with terminal cancer in my family. I thought that was the worst way to die but I was wrong. My father was still my Dad, my grandmother was still my Grandma. There were treatments the doctors could try, even if they gave us only a glimmer of hope. Dementia lingers for years, sometimes more than a decade. My husband is on year 7 and he probably has years of horror ahead for him, and for me.

A. Marie

Norm, Lost, and Paris, this is weird: Only two days ago, I was describing my caregiver experience to a sympathetic friend (thank goodness, I still have several) as "a life sentence with no clear chance of parole."

NylaBlue

In many ways it is also a sentence in solitary confinement. Neither the caregiver nor the PWD can understand what the other is going through so there is no shared experience, only a long walk in the darkness.