Excerpt: 'Creating Moments of Joy'

Dealing with Alzheimer's disease can be as difficult for family members as it is for the afflicted patient. Author Jolene Brackey has written a book to help families handle the changes Alzheimer's brings.

"Creating Moments of Joy" focuses on looking beyond the disease's challenges. Instead, it says people should focus more energy on making joyful moments, since a person with short-term memory loss lives from moment to moment.

Click here to link to Brackey's Web site and read an excerpt of the book below.

Understanding the Person with Alzheimer's

Understand that a person with Alzheimer's will lose his short-term memory, but retain some long-term memory if we learn how to trigger it. The first part of the brain that is damaged affects the short-term memory. This is why they repeat their stories, why they cannot remember what they had for breakfast or that their son visited last night. When you ask them what they had for breakfast they say, "I didn't have breakfast. Would you make me some?" Switch to their long-term memory and ask what they like to eat for breakfast, cereal or pancakes? They can chat about what they like to eat, but they cannot chat about what they just ate.

When you say to them, "I heard your son came to visit you last night," the response goes like this, "I haven't seen him in months. Where is my son?" Again, switch to their long-term memory, "He is such a wonderful kid, and he has big brown eyes just like you. You must be a proud mama." We can give her her son back . . . not from last night, but we can remind her who he is.

During a discussion about pets, Tom piped up about his pet mule. He said, "I had a pet mule once named Topsie. The only way to get Topsie to work for me was to share my tobacco with him." I asked him how old he was, and he said, "I was about 15 or 16." Tom is 82 years old, and doesn't remember what he had for breakfast, but he still remembers details from his childhood. He not only remembered how old he was and the name of his mule, but he remembered how to get Topsie to work for him. That's a treasure!

Because of their short-term memory loss they will share the same story over and over again. The following story is a true example of this.

I love to walk in the rain. As I was walking by the care center I thought, "I am going to go in and create a moment of joy." It never fails, the people there always create one for me. My hair was soaked and the ladies wanted to get me a towel. I explained how I loved the water. I am a lifeguard; I love to swim and walk in the rain. One of the ladies told me how she was a good swimmer, too, and taught all of her children to swim. She also told me about when she was eight and there were two kids in the river. They weren't very old and didn't look like they were going to make it. So she swam out and grabbed the girl by the hair and told the boy he better hang on. She wasn't very big and about the time when she didn't know if she would make it, she touched bottom and pushed the kids to shore with all her strength. I said, "Wow, you saved their lives." She said, "All I know is, I was shaking and I didn't swim for two years after that."

Now guess how many times I heard that story in the 15 minutes I visited with her....five times. My wet understanding the person with Alzheimer's hair triggered her story over and over again. Now, you can look at the stories they repeat over and over and over again and think, "Ahh, I already heard that story 10 times." Or you can look at that story and think, "I better remember this story for her because her disease might progress and she might lose the ability to tell me her story." When that time comes, the story that may put a smile on their face is the one that irritated you. These things that irritate you today might become treasures tomorrow.

Two months later, I visited this lady again and just said, "Hey, ya been swimming lately?" She replied, "No, but when I was eight...." And she proceeded to tell me the whole story again. All I had to say was the word "swimming." At that point I wished everyone knew the word "swimming," and I wished people would come up to her all day long and ask, "Hey, ya been swimming lately?" Then she would get to tell her story over and over and over again. Do you not think she would get a better day? Absolutely! Because the story leaves her with a good feeling.