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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Alzheimer's / August 2006Alzheimer's Logic
I've learned about my mother that while she says things that make no sense, there is often some sort of obscure logic in her mind. For instance, she's fascinated by her gray hair, because she's sure she's too young to be gray. (Hell, I'm 47 and I've been all gray since 40 or so! Under the dye, of course. :-) ) She'll ask many times a day, "Have I told you how my hair got this way?" Then she'll tell this disjointed story about her and her best friend Mavis finding a house or apartment abandoned but open, and full of cobwebs. The story never gets much further than that, and it never actually mentions her hair, though I suppose the link is the cobwebs -- maybe she thinks her hair is full of cobwebs? But the thing is, it's obvious the connection is clear to *Mom*, if not to anyone else. For that matter, back at 4th of July, when I visited, Mom talked endlessly of a childhood friend named Carla Rothenberg. Did I remember Carla? Why didn't I remember Carla? Where was Carla? How could she find Carla? After I left, she spoke glowingly of what a good time she'd had during the holiday with me, but wasn't clear that I was her daughter. Instead, I was her "nice Jewish friend." So again, there's an apparent link in Mom's brain. I think I'm becoming Carla because I'm in the same position in my family that Mom was in hers -- I'm the middle child, with an older sister and a younger brother. Mom's decided my sister and brother are *her* sister and brother, but obviously I'm not her, so I must be someone else, so I'm Carla. Which is fine, I'm sure Carla was a lovely woman. If it didn't hurt so bad to see my mom like this, it would be kind of fascinating. As it is, I can invariably crack my sister up by saying, "Have I told you about my hair?" Is this sort of "Alzheimer's Logic" common? Dana, it's good that you can find something to laugh about. There is so little to enjoy about AD. Gwen > I've learned about my mother that while she says things that make no > sense, there is often some sort of obscure logic in her mind. For [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Is this sort of "Alzheimer's Logic" common? > I've learned about my mother that while she says things that make no > sense, there is often some sort of obscure logic in her mind. For [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Is this sort of "Alzheimer's Logic" common? I think it is. An aunt of mine has I think mild dementia. She complained to me that her neighbours had a secret key to her house and were coming in and stealing her teaspoons and also shuffling her medicine boxes around. I suppose what happens is that she puts her teaspoons somewhere 'safe' and then later, the neighbours stealing them seems to be the obvious or perhaps the only explanation, since she 'knows' she just put them in the drawer, similar with the medicine. Therefore, as Sherlock Holmes said, when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth. I suppose there must also be some sort of logic function missing that you or I would use to work out that actually we must be mistaken about 'knowing' where we put the keys as neighbours breaking in to steal just teaspoons belongs in the 'impossible' category. I wonder if they cannot acknowledge that deficit, because if they did, they would have to admit they needed to be placed in care, typicallya huge worry, etc, so the brain is covering up its own mistakes? Hmmm, given the frequency I misplace my car keys, I could be in trouble here.........bloody thieving neighbours :-)  SignatureTumbleweed email replies not necessary but to contact use; tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com At one point, my MIL stopped wearing her false teeth - she didn't seem to understand what they were for, and would resist having them put in, and then would take them out and hide them, so they had to be put away. So, one fine day, she'd seemingly noticed she only had a couple of teeth left and she told us a garbled story about what had happened to her teeth. She told us bad boys had waylaid her on the way home from school and hit her in the mouth and knocked out her teeth. She was very animated describing these naughty boys and how she'd been walloped. Who knows where they get these ideas? She also hid some of her clothing, because she was sure one of the residents who she ate dinner with was coming to steal them. She related long stories of all the bad things this woman had said, and none of them could be true, since they had to do with very specific insults and remarks about private details of Dolli's childhood and family, which the woman couldn't have known. Sigh. M At one point my Dad asked my Mom if she knew who I was. She said, "Of course I know who he is. Don't you think I know my own brother!" Part of this might be the aging thing that so many of us have seen. My Mom believed she was much younger than she was and, by Alzheimer's logic, knew that I was too old to be her son. I must be her brother. She too hid things all the time. Again, I believe there was a logical reason for it. She kind of knew she couldn't find anything and concluded that if she put things in special hiding places, they couldn't just disappear. Of course this made everything disappear. Even after my Mom lost the ability to speak a coherent sentence, it seemed to me that there were logical thoughts stirring in her brain, she just couldn't get them out and I just couldn't figure them out from the bits and pieces she said. Alan My father has no idea who I am. I've been my mother, his mother, his sister, the cleaning woman, a taxi driver...*LOL*...etc. One day while trying, again, to tell him who I was...I explained that he had two children, a son and a daughter..and that I was his daughter. He began shaking his head telling me no....that I was too old to be his daughter....and that couldn't possibly be right anyways, because he has 3 children. I tried to ask a few more questions.....and then I explained again....he had a son and a daughter....he again said no......so I said, Ok, where's your third child?? (DREADING the answer because at this point I didn't know whether or not i needed to start a search for a sister or brother I didn't know I had).......Dad's answer..."We're expecting....(he taps my belly and says)...you'll soon be starting to show!! *LOL* > I've learned about my mother that while she says things that make no > sense, there is often some sort of obscure logic in her mind. For [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Is this sort of "Alzheimer's Logic" common? Some time back I was trying to convince my wife of 53 years that we are married. After it seemed to sink in, I told her we had a son. She asked who. I told her "Jim". She whispered conspiratorily "does he know?" SignatureCharlie in San Francisco > Some time back I was trying to convince my wife of 53 years that we are > married. After it seemed to sink in, I told her we had a son. She asked > who. I told her "Jim". She whispered conspiratorily "does he know?" That's cute, Charlie! LOL! SignatureBest Regards, Evelyn (to reply to me personally, remove 'sox') > Some time back I was trying to convince my wife of 53 years that we are > married. After it seemed to sink in, I told her we had a son. She > asked who. I told her "Jim". She whispered conspiratorily "does he know?" Good story. My father's name was Gerson. One day he and I went to visit Mom in the Alzheimer's home. We were sitting on a bench in their back yard when Mom turned to me, pointed at Dad, and said, "Doesn't he look just like Gerson?". Alan Dana, My sister and I are the main family involved with my mother's care. We also have noticed that there is always a grain of truth somewhere in Mom's rambllings. One time, my sister had taken Mom to see the movie about penguins. A couple of weeks later, I took my mom to Panda Express, a fast food chineese resturant. When my sister visited her at the assisted living facility later that night, Mom said she had left over penguin for dinner. It took a while for my sister to piece it together. Since penguins and pandas are both black and white animals, that start with the /p/ sound it really did make sense. But out of context it was a little hard to decipher. That's about the only funny memory I will have about this whole alz. process. She has declined quite a bit further so it's getting really hard to piece together the links. She is often living in a dual reality where we kids are still little and she's worried about us, but at the same time recognizes theat we are the same children, now adults, she's fretting about. It's a little Twilight Zonish |
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