When I was a child, I had two grandmothers, a grandfather, two great-grandmothers, and a great-grandfather. On my father's side, only my grandmother remained; the rest of them were all on my mother's side. It was interesting to watch them grow older and go through the final stages of their lives, and more interesting to see how their caretakers dealt with their long term elderly care.
My paternal grandmother has twelve children, and as she grew older, she developed Alzheimer's Syndrome. Her mind slowly gave way over a ten-year period, and she finally needed nursing care. While she was still living in her own home, different aunts and uncles juggled her daily care, but they all had their own lives, and many of them lived out of state, so coordinating for her was difficult. When her health finally deteriorated to the point that it was beyond their scope, the consensus was that she be placed in a nursing home, where she spent the final years of her life.
My maternal great-grandfather died when I was a little boy. His decline seemed to be rapid, and not a lot of extraordinary care was taken for him. That side of the family, however was very small, and so most of the care for my two great-grandmothers and my grandmother rested on my grandfather's shoulders.
His own mother, while mentally sharp, became physically frail, and every time she fell she would end up breaking a bone. My grandmother's mother remained both physically well and mentally fit until about the last two years of her life. Both women made it into their nineties, and at the very end, they became residents at the same nursing home as my father's mother.
Prior to moving into a long term elderly care facility, my grandfather did his best to take care of his ailing mother. He arranged for visitors, took her meals, and helped with her bathing and bathroom needs. Sadly, he was without many resources or an experienced support group to him with these chores, and while he did an admirable job, I think he really could have benefited from a community of experienced care givers as well as people in his situation.
Now, with the Internet, networking in this fashion has become easy and affordable. Even for someone like myself, with no current responsibility for loved one, can become part of the network and offer help and advice as well as training for the day when I may need to take care of an elderly friend or parent.
Author Resource:
eCare Diary, LLC (http://www.eCareDiary.com/) is for people like you going through the difficult process of long term elderly care . Art Gib is a freelance writer.
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