DEAR Janice (AND ALL OTHERS in like situation),
I too have a GOOD idea of what it's like to have a relative with Alzheimer's .... my own dad! My mother cared for him 24/7 (more like 25/8, if you get my meaning!!), for 8 years.....that's how long his condition lasted. He too would secretively (he thought! I SAW him do it.) throw away his handful of pills my mother had given him to take, to help stave off his early demise, and he became combative at times (which I did not see, as I was 800 miles away). There was a final crisis, and my brother stepped in and did for my mother that which she simply just could not do : have him put into an Alzheimer's facility. He died one month later (VERY unhappy at having to stay there separated from his much-loved wife)....but, thank God, he DID die peacefully in the hospital. He just stopped breathing. This was in April 2006. And at one point, about 7 years into his disease, when I was visiting with my parents, he was trying so hard to talk with me, and what came out was so incoherent that finally he said, "Oh, I don't know what I'm trying to say!" That broke my heart!! I believe that was the last time I ever heard him say anything intelligible.....that last spark of intelligence from him to me..... I am just SOOOO GLAD that I AM going to get to see him again, and in a MUCH HAPPIER CIRCUMSTANCE!!! New Jerusalem, HERE WE ALLLLL COME!!!
God BLESS all you care-givers who went down the noble, high road!!! (It WAS and IS a TOUGH row to hoe!!! BUT you'd better believe you're going to be BLESSED up one side and down the other real hard!! ;-> !! )
Love,
Linda