Memories

Shared by Dementia Care Specialists on Facebook:

Please send good thoughts to Karen Doyle, who writes: 

"I thought the caregivers might benefit from a person who still has enough left to share the early effects of dementia on us who suffer from it. I am 59 years old and just diagnosed with dementia. Over the past years I have slowly lost my memories of my life. 

I've always had problems with my memory, especially during stressful times. I still know who people are but without the memories to go with the person, the person does not have the same meaning to you. You know it's there - you know you love them - you just can't find it - can't feel it - can't express it. 

And then the anger comes because you are lost and empty and scared and alone without understanding. All you want is your life back but you don't know where it went. You sit and stare and search the empty voids of your mind trying to find yourself and refusing to believe you and your life are disappearing before your very eyes. You fight with all kinds of emotions that you never had to deal with before because you had the years of your experience in life to help you. 

You see - without the memory - you have nothing - therefore you feel as if you can do nothing. Scary right?? 

Hoping this might help at least one person out there. It's all I have left to give. God said share my pain and I will obey."