Batten Down The Hatches, Unplug The Phone...

Shadow Leader

Shadow Leader

At the Start
Joined
Nov 9, 2003
Messages
9,884
....Mike Baldwin's about to peg it in tonight's Coronation St.... :(

Actually, this storyline about Mike with Alzheimer's has been pretty sad - it's such a devastating disease. Anyhow, I'm gonna turn all my attention to it now!
 
I thought this was another bird flu thread telling us to beware of unborn chickens.
 
i must be getting hardened in my old age - having done so well with it up to now i thought it was pretty crap in the end, but ive been relatively lucky in that ive never had to deal with alzeimers in person.
 
Yeah, it was a bit tame, wasn't it?

My Great Uncle had alzheimer's and it was horrendous - he went from being fine to hacking bloody great holes in the walls of the house with an axe one night at 2am to "kill the men in black who were crawling over the walls". It was devastating - he went from normal to in a land of his own so very quickly and recognised no-one, not even his wife of 60-odd years.
 
:lol: :lol: DIVER :o They ought to KILL them all off..... a waste of expensive electricity :P :P .......soaps huh!!!

I been watching the rugby!! now there's a real!! game, no actors or diver's for nominee's for Oscars either................ ;)
 
Originally posted by trudij@Apr 7 2006, 07:28 PM
ive been relatively lucky in that ive never had to deal with alzeimers in person.
Click to expand...
Count your lucky stars you have never had to deal with disease, actually anyone for this matter.

My grandmother had the disease, and eventually died from it in October of 1999. She had it for 5 years, and they were possibly the worst 5 years of my life. She went from this happy, family, and fun loving person, to a human shell.

It was actually amazing to watch what could happen to her in the space of 10 minutes. One minute she'd be trying to tell you about what she did that day, and the next moment she'd be crying, and then suddenly she'd go back to her early childhood and talk about her best friend and ask if she could go to the shops with that friend for lollies.
As the disease progressed it got worse, and ended up taking over the entire brain.

My only wish now I guess is that a cure is found so no one else has to suffer.
 
The only contact I have had is second-hand (thankfully) but it seems very cruel. When a man doesn't recognize his wife and a mother her son, must be be very difficult for all concerned.
 
It's certainly bloody exhausting for all concerned, until the sufferer is taken away into specialist care (if they ever are). There's an old couple in the flats here, where Elsie is 90 and Ray is 86. He's been coping with her Alzheimer's through the support of our local Alzheimer's Society, which he can't praise enough. They have taken Elsie in for respite breaks, so that he can have a little holiday and regain his own sanity. Their son also does what he can. The saddest thing is that Elsie is a beautiful, smart, and kindly woman who now can't remember if she's had her lunch or not, can't be left out of Ray's sight for a minute, as she may wander away, but equally won't leave him out of view - even wandering into the bathroom while he's on the loo, because she doesn't remember that 30 seconds ago he said that's where he'd be.

One of our chaps in the flats went through five years of the same thing with his partner of 30 years. He put the 'forgetfulness' down to just getting older, until they took a trip to Florence, enjoyed seeing its sights for a couple of days, but when they were having drinks on the balcony, his partner asked, "This is nice, Frank, but we don't want to miss the next bus back to Brighton."

Can anything be sadder than seeing years of your loving partnership dwindle away to meaning nothing to the other, who is as alive as ever, but just not 'with' you any more?
 
Originally posted by krizon@Apr 9 2006, 10:15 AM
It's certainly bloody exhausting for all concerned, until the sufferer is taken away into specialist care (if they ever are). There's an old couple in the flats here, where Elsie is 90 and Ray is 86. He's been coping with her Alzheimer's through the support of our local Alzheimer's Society, which he can't praise enough. They have taken Elsie in for respite breaks, so that he can have a little holiday and regain his own sanity. Their son also does what he can. The saddest thing is that Elsie is a beautiful, smart, and kindly woman who now can't remember if she's had her lunch or not, can't be left out of Ray's sight for a minute, as she may wander away, but equally won't leave him out of view - even wandering into the bathroom while he's on the loo, because she doesn't remember that 30 seconds ago he said that's where he'd be.

One of our chaps in the flats went through five years of the same thing with his partner of 30 years. He put the 'forgetfulness' down to just getting older, until they took a trip to Florence, enjoyed seeing its sights for a couple of days, but when they were having drinks on the balcony, his partner asked, "This is nice, Frank, but we don't want to miss the next bus back to Brighton."

Can anything be sadder than seeing years of your loving partnership dwindle away to meaning nothing to the other, who is as alive as ever, but just not 'with' you any more?
Click to expand...
It kind of reminds me of another neurological disease, Motor Neurone Disease. Unfortunately motor neurone disease eats up the entire body, and the person becomes a living corpse, waiting to die. Whereas alzheimers takes over the brain slowly, and as it progresses wipes away ones current memory, and evenutally the entire memory.

I think the worst thing is when the person goes back to their early childhood, what my grandmother eventually did, and talks about people you never knew existed. And if you don't understand, they start crying, and get all emotional, its then it really hits you.
 
It is a desperate disease for sure, but I'm not sure Coronation Street have done much to promote an understanding of it. From everything I know it is a gradual process whereby the victim loses short term memory in a slow drawn out fashion. Mike Baldwin seems to have developed it in about 3 months.
 
homer
thats my wifes point about the time scale

however i think if they had made it more realistic timewise the shock of it would be lessened and viewers would lose interest so for making the public more aware i think they have gone the right way about it

agree though its a desperate disease
 
My grandmother has Alzheimers and it is a dreadful disease.
Click to expand...



My Grandma had it too. Slowly over a period of about 10 years it changed her character completely. She was a very strong lady, with bags of energy. It only took a while for the disease to sap her of all her character and personality. Grandad had to do everything for her. She died 3 years ago and I miss her terribly.
 
Originally posted by Homer J@Apr 10 2006, 11:10 PM
It is a desperate disease for sure, but I'm not sure Coronation Street have done much to promote an understanding of it. From everything I know it is a gradual process whereby the victim loses short term memory in a slow drawn out fashion. Mike Baldwin seems to have developed it in about 3 months.
Click to expand...
My great (ok, great, great!) uncle developed it virtually overnight, seriously. He was fine one day, albeit deaf as a post, then took the house apart with an axe at 2am to kill "the men in black that are crawling over the walls and ceiling". After that he went rapidly downhill (he was sectioned that same night) didn't recognise any of the family and died a few short months later in a mental hospital. It was a horrific time for all of us - we were very close to my great great aunt and uncle as they lived 5 minutes down the road from us and they used to look after my brother and myself as kids/teenagers in the school holidays whilst mum was at work.
 
Was that Alzheimer's, or dementia? There seem to be so many varieties of mental decline, it's hard to know which is which. He sounds psychotic, which some people are unless they're strongly medicated, but they can be in that condition at any age.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Apr 11 2006, 11:27 AM
He was fine one day, then took the house apart with an axe at 2am to kill "the men in black that are crawling over the walls and ceiling".
Click to expand...
Tell me, can you contract Alzheimer's at 33? The reason I ask is just that.....
 
:lol: :lol: But the serious bit is you can start dementia any time, I understand. There are so many mental conditions: a workmate's sister thought her husband of 31 was beginning to act very oddly. He didn't drink much, so that couldn't be blamed for the character change. He started to become violent, breaking household items and shouting a lot, and making odd remarks about their two small children needing to be with Jesus. She managed to get him, in a rational phase, to see a doctor, who diagnosed schizophrenia and put him on medication (probably Lithium). Unfortunately, he often forgot to take this and resisted if his wife tried to make him. The situation became charged and his parents, who thought the wife was making it all up, insisted he come to live with them. Which he did, while his wife changed all the door locks, put in alarms, and alerted the kids' school not to let the husband pick them up.

The man's parents refused to medicate him, saying there was nothing amiss, which they believed until four o'clock one morning, when the Mother was awakened by her son's hands firmly gripping her neck, whispering: "Jesus loves you, Mummy, it's time to come to Jesus... "

Unimpressed by Jesus's kind offer, Mummy got him onto medication after her husband prised her free.
 
He was definitely diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He wasn't necessarily pyschotic as he was trying to "kill the men in black" and when my gg aunt came down he didn't go for her - or the ambulancemen. He was perfectly pleasant for the rest of the time.
 
Back
Top