My mother first showed signs of Alzheimer’s Disease probably as early as 2008. She was 82 then. She couldn’t remember dates, places and names of family members. She couldn’t tell one day from another, and forgot what she just had for dinner or where she had left her purse. That was 11 years ago. I […]
MY MOM HAS ALZHEIMER’S – WILL I GET IT TOO? Read More »
Some people are blessed with all the good things in life, while others struggle every day of their lives. Good luck is always in short supply. Take a walk in the inner city and you will encounter the poor, the sick and the homeless. The compassionate among us want to reach out and help, but
WHEN COMPASSION ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH Read More »
Today is the last day of World Alzheimer’s Month, and tomorrow (1 Oct 2015) is UN’s 25th International Day of Older Persons. What better way to spend the day than at Hospital Kuala Lumpur’s celebration of Older Persons. The main lobby was packed with senior citizens checking out the poster exhibition and queuing up for
A SALUTE TO ALL CAREGIVERS Read More »
Thanks to an unexpected birthday gift of a return air ticket to Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to visit Hogewey Village. It has been on my wish list since I first read about the place two years ago, and watched CNN’s Dr Sanjay Gupta’s insightful documentary ‘Dementia Village’. Now I can happily strike Hogewey off
HOGEWEY – A PLACE LIKE HOME FOR THOSE WITH DEMENTIA Read More »
Alzheimer’s purple ribbon It’s been a week now since the National Caregivers’ Seminar up in Genting (see previous post). I continue to receive email enquiries about the seminar and also about the daycare centres that were recommended. Some of you have written to me about the daily challenges you face as a caregiver. I thank
THE LONG ROAD TO THE FINAL GOODBYE Read More »
Last weekend I attended the National Caregivers Seminar organized by the Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation of Malaysia (ADFM). It was time well spent as I learned much and met with caregivers from Johor, Malacca, Penang and Ipoh. As any caregiver will tell you, knowing there are others who are facing the same challenges gives you the
CAREGIVERS, KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE Read More »
Me, my mom, my elder daughter and my mom’s four great-grandkids at Dementia Homecare Centre during a recent CNY visit, When the doctor told me last March that my mother had dementia, the news wasn’t exactly a shock. My mother had become increasingly forgetful over the past months, and acting peculiar. Initially I put it
AM I JUST FORGETFUL OR DO I HAVE DEMENTIA? Read More »
I once asked my mom’s cardiologist which diseases doctors feared most for themselves. His immediate answer: stroke and dementia. I had expected him to say cancer. Dementia is incurable, irreversible and terminal. At least that is what doctors and medical researchers claim. The disease doesn’t concern us much until it strikes our elderly parents and
HOPE FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS? Read More »
Last Thursday, my mother had her first appointment at the ‘Memory Clinic’ – an euphemism for the Psychiatric Clinic. If you have never spent hours waiting in a crowded government hospital, count yourself lucky. It’s not an experience you want to subject yourself to, if you can help it. It’s very depressing, more so in a
ALZHEIMER’S – TAKING IT ONE DAY AT A TIME Read More »
Sharing tips on how to use creativity to enhance memory at ADFM. Sometime back in May, a small announcement in the papers caught my attention. It was a free talk on “How to manage your memory with creativity”. What drew my attention wasn’t so much the topic as the venue of the talk – Alzheimer’s
A DAYCARE CENTRE THAT’S LIKE A SECOND HOME Read More »
