My goodness, it has been over a year since I started writing this article! I trust it has been helpful. I would love to get some feedback. Please let me know how it has helped you.

One of my first articles I wrote that many families have been affected by Dementia. It is common place to learn that another family is living with dementia. I know many families that deal with this disease every day. It is time consuming and exhausting, to say the least. I gave a clear understanding of dementia in my first article. I want to share this again.

Dementia, according to the dictionary is a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. Dementia is an umbrella term and has 85-90 different conditions. Alzheimer’s disease is the number one condition of dementia. Many people think it comes with getting older, however it does not. This disease likes older people, but it does not mind settling with a younger person either.

Dementia is progressive; it will get worse, it is chronic, it is terminal and it will result in death. That’s the four truths. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common condition of dementia, with Alzheimer’s the person tends to lose new information, their recent memory will get worse. They will have problems finding words and they will mis-speak. They will be more impulsive or indecisive. They tend to get lost and you will notice changes with them over six months to a year.

Now this is tricky, a lot of the things I have just mentioned may be signs of aging. In my workshops I do a role-play of normal/not normal aging. It helps you to understand the difference between normal and not normal aging. Dementia is not normal aging. When a person lives with dementia their brain is failing, their brain is dying. I’ll give you an example, imagine a bowl of grapes, round, pulp and full, now imagine a bowl of raisins small and dried up. When we understand the person living with dementia, their brain is shrinking.

Another condition of dementia is vascular dementia. When a person is living with vascular dementia you will notice sudden changes, they will have bounce back days and bad days. Their judgment and behavior will not be the same. You will notice spotty losses and emotional and energy shifts. These changes vary by person.

Another condition of dementia is Lewy Body dementia. The person will have problems with movement and they will tend to fall. They will have visual hallucinations and they will have problems with fine motor skills (hands and swallowing). You will notice the will have nightmares and have episodes of rigidity (inability to be changed or adapted). They will have fluctuations in abilities. Drug responses can be extreme and strange.

Another condition of dementia is frontal-temporal dementia. A person living with frontal-temporal dementia may say unexpected, rude, mean and odd things to others. They may have language loss and can’t speak or get words out. They can not understand what is being said.

These are the four most common conditions of dementia. Remember there are 85-90 different conditions of dementia. Remember dementia is the umbrella term.

Some time ago I wrote about how life is ever changing. We may have plans for our lives but sometimes those plans are changed by circumstances we have not control over. You and your spouse may have plans to travel after retirement and instead one or the other is a caregiver. We never know what disease may knock on our door or what circumstances may come for a visit into our family. Just stay steady and do the best you can in any situation.

I want to announce that Dec. 31 was my last day at the Sampson Department of Aging as the family caregiver support specialist. I will continue to write my weekly article and I will continue helping families and facilities with my Positive Approach to Care Training.

You can reach me by e-mail at [email protected]. I would love to get feedback about my weekly article. I will be doing a workshop at Grove Park Baptist Church Jan. 29 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Hope you have a “Best Day Ever.”

Henderson
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By Lesia Henderson

Contributing columnist

Lesia Henderson Positive Approach to Care Certified Independent Trainer.