Hello. My name is Jeff, I am 63. My wife, who is 65 has had early onstage of Alzheimer's for about 3 years now. My mother who is now 86 had dementia. Have a harder time with my wife in that the short term memory is not good, but the long term memory is still there. It is effecting her right side in that her right hand just does not want to do what her brain is telling her to do. Emotionally the hard part, at least for now, is the frustration when she doesn't understand what is wrong that she "doesn't feel like herself" and then get frustrated and breaks down. I try to explain what is wrong in, what I think is a gentle way, but that doesn't work either. I have a hard time also that I am her safety valve. I might have a hard time explaining myself here but I cannot go anywhere without her wanting to follow me. If I go into our office to get some computer work done, like the bank statements, emails or anything like that she will follow me and then hover around trying to do "stuff" like cleaning but cannot get anything done as she will drop things and make a bigger mess. As I am new to this I have a hard time letting it go and just clean up when I can get her to go and maybe watch TV as with the right hand not able to do much there isn't much to do. I know I have to try and get her to try puzzles, or some kind of brain training things, but she cant hold a pencil, or objects to put anywhere, thus the frustration shows up again. I retired early to be with her but all the things I thought we would do together, we don't. Bike rides, skiing, fishing, camping....all to much I miss as well.
