2018 Wellness Expo

2018 Wellness Expo LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Wednesday, February 21, 2018 Page 21 - by Dr. Paul Boatman, D. Min., Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Care & Counseling, Lincoln Christian University W hen Alzheimer’s began to enter our family nearly 40 years ago, we really did not understand it. We did not even know what to call it. I saw it from a distance with Grandpa. He was in California; we were in the Midwest. Visits were rare and brief, but the passing years seemed to change him from a feisty, spunky “character” to a confused man whose personality appeared to have vacated the premises. We were told that his last days were spent with no awareness of anyone, even though family was gathered around. It was called “hardening of the arteries,” but looking back with what we know now, it was Alzheimer’s, misunderstood and untreated. We grieved at his passing, but we realized we had already been grieving the loss of the Grandpa we once knew. That was 1980. About ten year later, my dad started to change. He lived close enough that we saw it unfolding gradually. At first, we just observed “incidents.” He made wrong turns navigating the town where he lived for 30 years. In his classroom he repeated lectures without realizing he had delivered all this information the previous day. He came back from his daily run showing evidence of a serious fall, but with no memory of how it occurred. As we travelled together he asked the same questions repeatedly, with no sign that the answer I gave ever registered. These patterns gradually intensified over the years. His living environment changed. He decided to sell his home and move into a “senior apartment” where he was independent, but others monitored his comings and goings. Eventually, because he was making decisions that endangered himself and others we chose for him to live in close supervision. Fifteen years ago, that meant nursing home care. For one whose body was still much healthier than his mind, such a restrictive environment seemed cruel to him, but we felt we had no choice. By this time “Alzheimer’s” had become part of our vocabulary, but his general practitioner seemed not to want to diagnose. Yet the persistent decline in mental capacity, the ever- Love faces Alzheimer’s, Alzheimer’s faces Love CONTINUED →