Alzheimer's Advocacy trip to DC 2013

This past week, I was extremely fortunate to be part of 900 Alzheimer's Advocates who traveled from all over the country to DC to speak to our Congress Members and Senators on the impact of Alzheimer's has on the patients, loved ones and our Nation.  It was an experience that I feel any Caregiver out there should participate, although it might be very hard to be apart from the person who are taking care of, our Politicians need to hear our stories we are their Constituents after all.  Some might be more receptive than others and be willing to hear your story and others might just want the facts.

I was able to meet some amazing people with their own stories of Alzheimer's and how they managed to be a Caregiver and juggle life and knowing that I am not alone in this journey.  New friendships were made on this trip and listening to the amazing speakers we had and what they are doing for a world without Alzheimer's was inspirational.

I was also blessed to have met Glen Campbell and have a picture taken with him, I have loved his music ever since I was child and to have met him in person is a feeling I hold dear to my heart always.  To see this debilitating disease take a man I have only heard on the radio away from the talent he was given was hard to see and to realize that my Mom is not too far behind him in the stages of Alzheimer's made me extremely emotional and broke down in my hotel room wishing to be home to hold my Mom but knew she was in good hands with my Sister and Niece.

Below is a picture of part of our group who had the honor to meet with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Finding the sense of humor in Alz

As my Mom and I were going to my Sister’s place to drop something off, she sometimes gets a bit nervous and thinks I’m going to be dropping her off and going somewhere without her even though we have only done that twice and it was for me to go be gone a couple of hours. So I always tell her the same funny story so she can laugh, I tell her about when my Niece’s friend bought a new car and went to show it off and as they were leaving he was backing up and he went over a speed bump and he thought he had run over someone or something. Mom always laughs really hard and says how silly he is. So that day was no different I told her the same story, we did what we needed to do and left, then I got a call from my Niece that I forgot something so we turned back around being just 5 minutes away and I told her the same story again as we are pulling in and she turns to me in a very upset tone of voice and says, “Just because I have memory loss doesn’t mean I forget things.” Yeah, that took me a little bit to get and I tried not to break out laughing thinking okay now that’s an oxy-moron. Of course I didn’t laugh since that would make her more upset, I just tried to remain serious and do what we needed to do.

I’ve been going back to this a lot thinking of what she must be feeling when I “try” to make things easier for her and at times maybe I’m doing more harm than good especially on those moments she is more lucid than other moments. Trying to do the best sometimes can backfire and I have to just swallow it and hope for the best next time.