Alzheimer’s
can be a very difficult disease for families to deal with as we slowly watch
our loved ones slip away from us until they do not even know us. We watch a loving parent or spouse gradually
lose their thinking, remembering, and reasoning abilities, until at the very end,
no longer even respond to their name.
As
a person with Alzheimer’s can live for years, we sometimes forget that it is a
terminal disease with no cure. In
addition this may mean that at a certain point families are faced with
difficult end-of-life decisions, and these decisions sometime have to be made
without knowing our loved one’s direct wishes.
The
National Institute on Aging (NIA) has published some guidelines to help
families traverse through these challenging issues. One of their foremost recommendations is to
have this conversation with mom or dad or a spouse early-on, before the disease
takes away their ability to seriously weigh in on their feelings regarding end-of-life
decisions. The article relates a story
about a woman in the later stages of Alzheimer’s who ended up with
pneumonia. Without her mother being able
to communicate any longer, the daughter did not know what her mother’s wishes
were in regards to feeding tubes and antibiotics to treat the illness.
Other
decisions regarding the care of those with Alzheimer’s
include whether to continue medications to treat medical conditions or to have
surgery in the end stages of the disease or to just provide palliative care.
Thus family members must weigh
quality of life with quantity of life.
The
NIA reports that the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease include some of the
following: being unable to move around
on one’s own, being unable to speak or make oneself understood, and eating
problems such as difficulty swallowing.
If
you need memory care for a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s or another form
of dementia, we invite you to consider MorningStar
at Englefield Green. We
proudly and lovingly provide compassionate care from the onset of the disease
to the very most advanced stages. Please
visit our
website to learn more.
MorningStar at Englefield Green
embodies the very best in senior living with a distinct mission statement of
“to honor, to serve, to invest” that sets us apart from other senior living
communities. Amidst a beautiful
home-like setting, we provide care based on honoring God, valuing seniors and investing
in a staff with a felt calling to serve.
Please contact us for information on one of Boise’s most trusted
Alzheimer’s care homes.
Source:
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/end-life-care-people-dementia
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