With our sincerest appreciation to "Music and Memory" for allowing us to re-post Brian's blog. Immersed in fog. That’s how Brian LeBlanc describes his bouts of confusion from Alzheimer’s. “Imagine you’re driving down a road on a beautiful fall day,” he says. “The sun is shining, the trees are orange and purple. You come to a bend in the road and, all of a sudden, you hit a fog bank. Your natural reaction is [...]

CREATING MOMENTS OF JOY WITH MUSIC. HERE'S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. Has anyone ever told you to “live in the moment?” Or “Be present.” Living in the moment takes on a whole new meaning for someone who is living with dementia. Here’s how Jolene Brackey describes it in her best selling book Creating Moments of Joy – A Journal for Caregivers. “When a person has short term memory loss, his life is made up of [...]

With Appreciation to The Washington Post for allowing us to post it. Tom and Peggy Misciagna were sitting in their Manassas, Va., home recently, talking about the children they adopted overseas in the 1980s, when Tom, 64, misremembered a major detail. “We got two kids out of India — ” he said. Peggy, 59, chimed in. “Philippines.” “Oh yeah, Philippines,” said Tom, a retired CIA officer. He grinned wryly at his wife. “That’s Ollie [...]

ECT for Dementia? The Dangers of the BPSD Mindset [ECT – electroconvulsive therapy; BPSD – behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia] by: G. Allen Power, MD     It is hard to believe that my first blog post on this subject was 8 years ago, colorfully titled ECT for AD and LBD? WTF…(https://changingaging.org/blogstream/ect-for-ad-and-dlb-wtf/). In that post, I criticized researchers for giving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to people living with dementia who were exhibiting “severe agitation [...]

Why do we call it Alzheimer’s Disease and not Alzheimer’s Dementia? From what I see and read and have researched, Alzheimer’s is the only form of dementia that is called a disease other than Parkinson’s. Does calling it a disease make it stand out from other forms of dementia? I think it does. When someone hears you have Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s Disease you are automatically associated as having a terminal illness. But tell [...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkvp3FcxzGE&fbclid=IwAR14_jCqOsstOXc6I5d9jL22qZOGKYMNOdwb3-VjzU8v_BOhYmcP0UdyjWI

by Margaret Anderson “I am so blessed to have known your dad….  I watched his joy and gratitude for each day and everything it offered… He taught me how to live, and I shall miss him terribly but I will remember.”  A friend wrote this to me when my Dad, Earl, died.  Dad, who had dementia, lived with me for his last nine years – from age 91 to 100.   Her words reflect so [...]