Thanks all for the openness and sharing. Ya'll have no idea how this has helped. We too are dealing with progressive dementia in the family where, as pointed out above by several, the primary caregiver clearly is so fatigued they aren't fully functional themselves nor in the land of reality. The ill one should, at this point, be in LTC yet several of the family members still somehow think they'll magically "snap out of it".
The primary caregiver (the dementia persons spouse) is clearly not dealing with it well as things are slipping, weight is coming off, extreme fatigue, lack of engagement, EVERYONE is so worried abou the dementia person that the PC literally is left out of everything else and sits alone at home. it's so sad.
It's quite astounding how several of them have "normalized" the behaviors just so they can cope. Over a year ago we had a family meeting over this (last one I was invited to), where I said hey people ya'll need to think clearly about this... better to make a hard decision a little too soon, than not have a choice to make any decision at all because it's too late. It's super frustrating for me as I'm purposely not-included in conversations and decisions so they can continue living in the land of "oh they'll get well after XYZ" happens.
Anyways sounds like we all have similar yet varied experiences... sometimes I just wanna hop in my vehicle and drive away to the nearest tropical beach.
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