Alzheimer's and Advocacy for Audrey

"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest." -- Thomas Moore By Pamela R. Kelley +Alzheimer's Reading Room Forget Me Not The State Flower of Alaska If you’re like me, you’ll have heard it a thousand times before arriving at the end stages of Alzheimer’s with your loved one: You have to be their advocate when dealing with the medical community. But what does that mean? What does it look like? How do I know when I’m advocating in the right way? Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room Email: *Pamela R. Kelley is the full-time caregiver for her mother; and, a long time contributor to the Alzheimer's Reading Room. She lives, works and writes in Anchorage, Alaska.Here’s a little example, one in which I think I got the advocacy bit right. You can be the judge. My mother, Audrey, was enrolled in hospice care earlier this month. Regular readers might recall our experience from On the Brink of Hospice. The comments I read added important information to the core knowledge I had developed through earlier research in preparation for this stage. Other important information came from my familiarity with Audrey’s own views. Seven years ago, Audrey had some orthopedic surgery and was on one of those on-demand morphine drips immediately afterward. I stayed at her bedside and witnessed her fear while hallucinating. Days later, Mom remarked upon the experience. I remember ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Dementia Authors: Source Type: blogs