Essay About Care Of My Grandmother And Own Personal Experience

Alzheimers Disease
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Alzheimers is a disease which causes changes in the brain. Starts off causing mild memory problems and ends up causing serious mental damage resulting in death. This disease is a progressive one slows your body down in all areas and you forget everything. In my own personal experience, I had the opportunity to take care of my grandmother who was diagnose with Alzheimers disease in, 2001. It was a very hard experience watching her go through the different stages of Alzheimers. It is very heart breaking to know that a loved one has Alzheimers but then again theres nothing you can do for them but be supportive. When my grandmother was diagnosed with this illness I was 17 I didnt know what Alzheimers disease was and the effects. It was traumatic to everyone in my family to find out that my grandmother was going to lose her independence slowly but surely. When my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimers she lived by herself. She was a very good cook and loved to have everything in order and nice and clean. We use to visit my grandmother very often as time went by my grandmother started to forget where she placed her belongings like her purse, keys and money. She would accuse everyone for taking her belongings. It was very frustrating for my brothers and me because we used to get blamed for everything. In fact, my mom used to punish us without realizing that my grandmother was actually forgetting where she would place her belongings. My grandmother used to cook every Sunday for the entire family. One time we helped prepare dinner, I believe she was making yellow rice with beans. She would normally put oil in to make the rice with beans, only this time she grabbed the bottle of bleach. Thank god! We were there to see that she was beginning to lose her ability to cook. My grandmother began to forget how to do stuff she normally knew how to do more often. She was very confused all the time. She was having trouble managing her money and paying her bills. My grandmother would leave to go shopping and have no clue of what she was getting when she arrived at the store. It got so bad that my grandmother could not be left alone. Shortly after my mom had to assist her in just about everything. So she decided to move my grandmother in our home. There were five in our family my mom, my two brothers and my sister. As hard as it was to watch my grandmother we helped to care for her. She had to be watched all the time. My grandmother had a total of seven children four boys and three girls only two of her kids were in the United States at the time of her illness. My mom and my aunt were the only ones involved in taking turns to care for my grandmother. As this illness progressed my grandmother forgot how to maintain her personal hygiene. She forgot how to use the restroom properly and cleaning up after herself became a problem. This illness got so bad that safety was an issue. She would sneak out of the house in the middle of the night wandering the streets. Not having