A LOT OF us know a lot about dementia.
It’s not necessarily because we’ve studied it, but more often than not, because we’ve lived it … and then we studied it.
We’ve done this because we had to.
Most of the time, it’s started before we know that it’s started, but eventually we begin to notice little things. Little things that just don’t seem … right:
“She forgot that?”
“He did what?”
“Did you notice that …?”
And sometimes, after we’ve checked out every other possibility and just can’t ignore it (or deny it) anymore, we get the actual diagnosis: Dementia.
(And yes: It is very important to get the diagnosis)
What usually comes next is shock, manifesting as fear, sadness, grief or hopelessness and, eventually, we get to the question: What do I do now?
Good question.
Doing what I do, I see a lot of material on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia: All of it is well intentioned and some of it is pretty good, but every now and then I come across something that makes me say: This is really good. This would actually help.
This will actually help: http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Dementia- Information.
If someone you care about is heading down the dementia road, this will help. It will help you, which will help them.
It will help you to figure out what to do next, what to expect, what might constitute “help” and how to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
And that’s worth a lot. Vaya con dios.
And speaking of putting one foot in front of the other, have you fallen lately?
No? Good. Yes? I’m sorry.
I know that I go on about falling with some degree of regularity, and I apologize if it gets boring, but I see this happen so much.
And things can go downhill from there quickly.
So, please, bear with me.
If you just happened to stumble on something or tripped over something or (God forbid) did something stupid — and you’re OK — well, then, life goes on.
But if it happens from time to time, there’s a reason for it and often, the fix can be pretty simple.
Do you just need to have that particular something moved to somewhere else?
Do you just need to break down and buy some different shoes? Or slippers? Maybe with some actual traction?
Do you just need to take that particular medication with food, like it says on the bottle? Or, not with that other med? Or, do you just need to break down and ask the pharmacist?
Do you need to turn the light on, instead of pretending you’re a bat?
If you throw your weight forward, in order to get up, do you need to sit somewhere else? Get a different chair? Get a lift-chair? (Those things are amazing.)
Put something with some traction on the bathroom floor? In the shower?
Get somebody to move your favorite casserole dish to a lower shelf, where you can actually reach it?
Do you get the point?
Most of the time, solving this falling problem can be pretty darned simple, and beats the heck out of the problems you’ll have to solve if you take a bad fall. Or one fall too many.
Afraid of the expense? Understood, but try paying for the deductible from the ER. Or the ambulance.
Just too proud?
What “… cometh before a fall?”
OK …
Just can’t seem to get around to it? Oh, come on!
Do I have to put us all into a coma again, going on about how falls will take more of us out of play than several major diseases combined?
Don’t make me come down there …
Seriously, please: Pay attention to what’s happening, how it’s happening, when it’s happening and what you could actually do about it.
Then do it.
Then go back to your life.
I never met an EMT who complained of boredom.
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Mark Harvey is director of Clallam/Jefferson Senior Information &Assistance, which operates through the Olympic Area Agency on Aging. He is also a member of the Community Advocates for Rural Elders partnership. He can be reached at 360-452-3221 (Port Angeles-Sequim), 360-385-2552 (Jefferson County) or 360-374-9496 (West End), or by emailing harvemb@dshs.wa.gov.
