By Magen McCrarey
Staff Writer
LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. —
Omega Branscom often looked through photo albums with her great-grandson, discovering aging photographs that she had forgotten and studied family members as if she was traveling back in time to relive old memories. On a particular afternoon, she asked him to take a walk with her through her Middlesboro home and made an abrupt stop to stare quizzically at a decorative dinner plate.
“She couldn’t remember who gave it to her but she knew that it was special,” said London resident Daniel Carmack, Branscom’s great-grandson.
It was an anniversary gift given to Branscom by her late husband, Dewey. Carmack remembered the story Branscom had rehearsed about the plate years ago and so he re-told the narrative to strike a chord in her deteriorating memory caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
Striking a chord is vital for those struggling with the disease, assured Karen Wyan, a former member of Laurel Heights Home for the Elderly’s Alzheimer’s support group. Wyan’s late sister struggled with the disease, and the re-telling of past memories eased her mind when confusion set in.
“I did not correct her on purpose, I just laughed. You learn the value in looking for humor for them to lighten their burden. Many worry so much,” Wyan said.
The most common behavior for those with Alzheimer’s is forgetting where home is. Carmack confirmed this by recalling his great-grandmother’s episodes of wanting to “go home,” so he and his family appeased her by buckling her into a vehicle and driving her around the block — only to return right back into her own driveway.
“They may forget people, they may forget places, but, most of the time, they do not forget they are human and deserve some respect,” he said.
Families struggle with the disease right along with the patient. Carmack said his family members each had their own way of coping. As Branscom went through stages of memory loss for more than nine years, the most damaging of all emotions his relatives experienced were denial and anger. Alzheimer’s is sometimes called “the long goodbye” because there’s no closure when a loved one drifts away slowly, he said.
“There’s never a defining moment. It’s just a constant drift,” he added.
“Families have a tremendous need for that person to be who they were, and, when the person is no longer like the mom they grew up with or the husband or wife they had, they sometimes push them to remember and it becomes frustrating for both the person with dementia and with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Reneé Chase, professional education coordinator for the Alzheimer’s Association.
For five years, Branscom’s memory slowly deteriorated and she had to painfully step back as a city council member as well as an election officer, a position she held for more than 40 years. Branscom was fortunate to have the choice of living at home, even in her late age.
Living at home is a better option for families, Chase said, if they can afford it. For the next four years of Branscom’s jovial life, she required 24/7 long-term bedside care. In 2011, 15.2 million families in the U.S. and other unpaid caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias provided an estimated 17.4 billion hours of unpaid care. Not to mention the emotional and physical taxing duties associated, Chase added.
She said it’s important to pin-point the patient’s “triggers,” things that make their stress levels go off the deep end. Triggers can be anything from loud noises to approaching them too quickly. The most common is when family members begin a series of the childhood game, “21 questions.”
“It’s the hardest thing for families to accept the person for who they are today, in this moment, in this day, and it may be somebody not quite the same tomorrow,” Chase said.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana President and CEO Teri J. Shirk, 50 percent of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s are living at home and cared for by a family member. To alleviate the minds of family members and Alzheimer’s patients, long-term care insurance is something to immediately look into before diagnosis occurs, Carmack advised. Unpaid caregivers are not plentiful. A caregiver’s health suffers immensely, too, Chase said.
“Alzheimer’s patients forget a lot of things, but the one thing we forget is how important it is to treat them with dignity,” Carmack said.
For online support, visit the Alzheimer’s Association’s newest social network alzconnected.org.
This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Part 3 will be published in next Friday’s (May 4) edition.
mmccrarey@sentinel-echo.com
