Help, I've Lost My Brain

Richard Taylor Living With It Born on February 4, 1943 in Jackson... Send Message Subscribe: Richard Taylor

Saturday, March 15, 2008
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If I lost a limb (through an accident, or disease) I know even as it was being removed professionals would begin to marshal their skills to support and enable me to compensate for the lost limb. I would probably be fitted with an artificial one. Perhaps technology would be added t...

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you are still there
N.C.
Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 12:45 PM

Richard, you are right, you are still you and nothing is changed. My experience is that the person may change the habits or lose memory, but the personality is still there. People say the personality changes, but I think it is really just the change of the memory. The personality is still there. e.g, my father-in-law has moderate/severe Alzheimer's and he is 87 buit his personality is still there for sure. Even when he got sick and did not walk for 1 month, his personality was still there!
Nina

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Sue
Monday, March 17, 2008 at 09:08 PM

Dear Richard,

As always your post is superb! Your candor and humor are well appreciated and I hope you continue to write with us for as long as you are able.

Your point is spot on. I suspect there are many people with Alzheimer's and dementia that feel the same way. I also wonder if there are lots of caregivers and family and friends who struggle with their own fears and sadness ( albeit selfish) of the loss of the "original" loved one.

But with people like you sharing with us how it really is, there will for sure be changes, even small ones, by many.

I look forward to hearing fro you again soon. All the best, sue

Hang in
Leah
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 03:40 PM

Lord knows, Richard, we are in this thing together. Take each day, one at a time. Thank God for all you DO have and the rest won't matter so much.
Leah

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sympathatic friend
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 06:22 PM
God Bless you Richard. You are exactly correct...you are the same person and if I knew you I would love you the same. My friend's husband has the horrible disease and she is not dealing well with it. She like others see you, cannot see her husband as the person he was and cherish the time they have left together and it makes me crazy. I am searching this site for answers...for her. Hopefully I can find a place where she can go and let go of her feelings and get support from people who are in her position. I am not completely unaware of how she feels in that I have a very dear to me Aunt suffering from the same disease. She was diagnosed with altzheimers at 60 much like my friend's husband and she is now 70 and still with us. But we love her today as we did the day she learned she had it. My friend, not so much. Bless you.

re: Untitled Comment
N.C.
Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:56 AM

Hi sympathetic friend, I think we cannot make other people face the reality. However I think we need to be fair to know that your friend - the wife of an ALzheimer's patient is doing what she can do. After all she is living with her sick husband. In times she will learn to cope with it. It is her pain. I don't think she is not dealing with him. She is dealing with him everyday. It is just that her way is not our way and she prefers not to learn about ALzheimer's. But you can teach her when you see her and help her to understand Alzheimer's.
Nina