ALZHEIMERS - NOW WHAT

How to Handle an Alzheimer's diagnosis? The answer is best way that you can. It will also depend on whether or not you are the one who has gotten the diagnosis or if it is a loved one that has just been given this diagnosis also know as a sentence.

It may be that the first first 24 to 72 to 96 hours after getting the diagnosis all you may be able to do is sit in your bed, pull the covers over your head and cry. You may have the energy to call or email the people who are in your inner circle and tell them that a person you love beyond measure has just been diagnosed with a disease that will most probably steal away your history and your future. Maybe you will get on the computer and spend the first week of getting the diagnosis looking up everything you can find on Alzheimer's on the Internet. What you need to remember is that however you handle getting through the first week is fine. Everyone will handle the diagnosis differently and their reaction to the diagnosis will be different and what you need to know is that however you handle it it is OK. You have just been given information that will change your life.

There will be days if you can get past the darkness and the bitterness that you will be amazed at the gifts you will receive. The kindness from loved ones ands strangers. The ability to look at a a blade of grass or a sunset and really and truly be in the moment.

Once you get over the initial shock and disappointment and possibly anger and rage you need to begin to go forward and take steps that will protect you, your family and your loved one. There are a number of concrete steps that you can take. These included educating yourself and your family members. You need to get the names of doctors and programs in your area that deal with patients with Alzheimer's patients. You need to educate yourself on the steps that you can take to allow your loved one to live with as much dignity and grace as possible. You also need to know what you can do to get involved in a program that supports caregivers. Caring for someone with Alzheimer's may be one of the most difficult jobs of your life.

If you are lucky enough to have a strong extended support group you need to have honest open communication with this support group and tell them what you really need. You also need to speak with the person who has been diagnosed and this ,may be one of the hardest parts of the getting a diagnosis but it is also the most important conversations that you have. You have to ask the hard questions. What does the person who has been diagnosed want ? Do they want to live at home as long as possible? What is going to happen if a person cannot be maintained in the home? Do you have the finances to pay for extended care? You need to go and see a financial planner as quickly as possible. Back to the patient do they want heroic measures taken once they know longer know their name? What about medications? Should medication for blood pressure continue when you cannot go to the bathroom by yourself? What do you want done when you die? Do you want your body donated to science? Do you want to be cremated or buried.? What are the things you want to do before you get to sick to do anything? All of the big life questions need to be asked and answered.

Along with all of these questions take some time and see if there are any clinical trials that look promising and then make a decision about whether or not you are willing to go into one of these. There are few diagnosis more devastating then Alzheimer's. But once you get the diagnosis you give yourself a few days to mourn and then you must get out and live.