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It is called the Long Goodbye!!!!!
It is called the Long Goodbye!!!!!

It is called the Long Goodbye!!!!!

Frontal temporal Dementia and Lewy Body Dementia.

For those who know, you know. For those that don’t read on. It takes years to pass away when you have Frontal temporal Dementia and Lewy Body Dementia.

One of the hardest things to process is the slow change in the one you love. It is cruel for the individual with dementia and it cruel for their family and friends. Everything changes, they end up becoming a completely different person and unrecognisable.

Just so you know…😢 It’s called the long goodbye.

Rapidly shrinking brain is how a doctor described it. As the patient’s brain slowly dies, they change physically and, eventually, forget who their loved ones are and become less themselves.

Patients can eventually become bedridden, unable to move and unable to eat or drink or talk to their loved ones and be like that for years!!

My Mother

My mother developed dementia some years ago. At first it was just little things you noticed, they would forget things, they would struggle to remember but over time it progresses. Those little things, that they and you could easily laugh off then to progress to more serious things like. Putting food in the washing machine, flooding the kitchen, wonder off and not know where they are.

There came a point where my mother had to be moved to a specialist dementia care unit. That in itself is a really tough decision to make. Over time her dementia has steady progressed and for a long while she has not be able to speak or communicate with anybody.

My mother is now effectively bedridden, barely able to move, the nursing staff have to fed her thickened liquids, as she can no longer eat. At time she look so haggard and withdrawn. When we visit her we would be very lucky if there was any level of recognition and there is no means of effective communication.

To see this lovely kind warm and generous person is heartbreaking, it tears me apart and breaks my heart to see her now.

My mother’s perspective

What we don’t know and what I am not sure is whether anybody know what it is like from my mother’s perspective?

  • What does see?
  • What does she hear?
  • What does she feel
  • How does she feel?
  • Does she/can she understand and comprehend anything?

All we see is a shell of a person, what is is like for them?

My mother will be like this for possibly years, a very long, a very slow lingering way to die.

Please raise awareness

Please support to raise awareness of Dementia or Alzheimer’s, until it has touched you, you’ve no idea what it is like to watch someone die slowly.

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