I invite you to log onto the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com - and read today's blog. It is the second installment of my series on my Evolution as an Alzheimer Spouse. The first part dealt with my fight to keep my husband and my life as it had always been before Alzheimer's Disease. Today's Part II deals with my "adjustment" to morphing from wife to caregiver. It was very emotional to write, and I hope it helps those of you who are going through it to cope.
Please post your comments and experiences of this stage here. Thank you.
Thank you Joan. My DH is still quite cognitive but his behaviour made it hard to live at home, but I still remember those days before he went to live in LTC and I now live with him torn because he can't come home now. It's so hard. I would bring him home for good if I could. It's the if I could......I know I can't.
Thanks Joan. Going from wife to caregiver is where I am right now. Not an easy transition, is it? As in my post from the other day, I lost it completely with him, but thanks to comments from others, I'm trying to get back on an even keel. Your latest is a great help also. It's good to have an understanding "learning" place to come to.
Yes your blog made me very sad too. Especially the part about your last night at home together. So sorry for that suffering Joan. It brings back hard memories, I wonder if they will ever abate.
Joan, so true and so sad. I remember DH's last night before placement, looking at him and thinking he had absolutely no inkling that he would never again set foot in the home or garden he loved so much........it's just very tragic for everyone.
After reading your comments in the "Blew it" thread, I feel as if I wrote today's blog for you. All of the stages we go through have their own horrors, but transitioning from spouse to caregiver is particularly difficult and sad. The blog has no suggestions as how to get through it. It was written to support you ( and everyone in that stage) through it. Because in the big picture, that really is all we can do for one another - support each other through it.
I've been thinking a lot about Joan's last two blogs, and they have brought back so many memories and feelings. I have not commented, because I really couldn't add anything--Joan said it all so well. Thank you, Joan.