Dementia..

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to share with you a little story that I was reminded of this week and its been on my mind ever since. I was listening to the TV one night this week, I very rarely sit and watch television, mostly because I am too busy but also because I cant stay focused on it, anyway, I wanted to follow that programme about the EU and the whole in or out thing.  It was very interesting and I have made my decision, although while I sat there I realised that the 23rd June is the day of my hospital appointment so I will be going down to the polling station 'blind' so to speak.....I hope they still let me vote! yeah, they should do, and its weight watchers weigh-in night, so it might be good if I cant see. I lost 2 pound this week, so I've made a good start, my bestie lost 4 pound, so she made a even better start.
Back to the story, so, after the EU thing, there was a documentary about Dementia. It talked a lot about how the partners of people who develop Dementia cope, and Angela Rippon, whose Mum had Dementia, had looked after her until she had to go into a nursing home. Angela took various tests and they showed ways of avoiding and coping with the disease. Towards the end of the programme it showed a lady who was running like a support group for people with Dementia, she was well dressed, funny and very capable....normal. seeing her in her surroundings you would never have guessed she also had developed some of the first stages of Dementia. In her own home she had such structure to help her, she even needed help to make a cup of tea, she would forget to eat, so every time she had something to eat she would leave the washing up in the bowl so she knew she had eaten, a empty glass meant that she had taken her medication. I was overwhelmed with respect and understanding for this woman, my sight loss is not a life threatening disease but it is invisible to some people. While parts of her brain are slowly dying mine are getting more exact, I am learning to work around things in the same way she does. It was very humbling to watch. when I went to bed I lay there for a long time thinking about it, I used to, many years ago, work in a residential/nursing home. and there was a very old married couple the wife was blind and when her husband developed Dementia and she could no longer manage, she wouldn't leave him so they had a double room at the home. He was in quite late stages of Dementia and would become violent towards staff, so staff had learnt to approach him in a certain way and to talk to him in a gentle calming manner. The wife who had been Blind for many years, could only remembered him as she last 'saw' him, as a young, good looking, happy care free man. When she used to hear the staff talking to her Husband in such a very gentle way she would get very jealous and would say such hurtful things to the staff, but she just couldn't see or wouldn't see that her husband was no longer the man she married all those years ago. As a young woman then, I found it hard to tolerate the wife, hard to understand her insecurities, I remember knowing that the husband was not a pleasant man, and I was ignorant in thinking that he had always been this way. How easy it is just not to care, just to do a job, walk away and collect the pay cheque at the end of the month. This couple clearly had loved each other very much and stayed together right until the end, I am sure she passed away before he did in the end, I wish I had talked to the wife more, had the time to reassure her and maybe have been more respectful towards the life she had lost.  How devastatingly cruel life can be.