Dealing Withe Dementia

Sandra Day O'Connor and Newt Gingrich (an unlikely pair) testified yesterday before a senate committee on Alzheimer's disease. Justice O'Connor's husband has Alzheimer's.

My real Husband had dementia, among other things. Was it Alzheimer's? I don't know.

For many years he went to great lengths to conceal his condition from other people. It was a long time before others knew, including family.

It started out simply. He wrote things down that he could no longer remember. Including the names of our children and grandchildren. One day, early on, he went to the dry cleaners down the street and ended up lost in the next town.

Then he couldn't be left alone.

To be a caregiver for a person with any kind of dementia is to enter a kind of hell that I wouldn't wish on anybody. It's lonely and terrifying. Every day.

That's why it struck me, and somehow comforted me, to read that Sandra Day O'Connor, when her husband could no longer be left alone, took him to work with her!

It's not like she had some easy job. She was a Supreme Court Justice.

I totally get why she did it. You would think that there would be all sorts of resources. But even family and friends don't understand.

Nearly one in two people older than 85 have Alzheimer's. Says Justice O'Connor, I'm getting pretty close to 80, so that gets my attention.

I'm not anywhere near 80 but it gets my attention too!



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