How do Alzheimer's patients perceive the passage of time?
My mom has been living in a memory care facility for a year. She is about at stage 6, mobile, but unable to function independently at all. Of course there are many residents there who are much more advanced in the disease than she is. I am basically her only visitor, once or twice a week, because my brother lives far away and I've had to move her away from her friends so she could be closer to me. And I work full time. She does still know me and she is delighted to see me when I visit. But when I arrive, she is often just sitting. She can't read or do needlework anymore to pass the time. So many residents just sit and don't interact when there is no entertainment or activity at the facility. Does she miss me when I'm not there? What does a day seem like to her? She is not agitated or anxious like many residents. I guess I just need reassurance that she's not missing me terribly when I'm not there. Or maybe she doesn't miss me at all (she never mentions her ex-husband of 20 years who divorced her 2 years ago). I'm grateful she still knows and appreciates me. Are her days long and boring or does she perceive time going by the way we do?
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https://www.agingcare.com/articles/Stages-of-Alzheimers-disease-118964.htm
I do not have any experience with the disease. Hopefully others will respond with hands on experience. Good Luck
Since persons with mid-to-late stage dementia are usually not able to articulate clearly what they are experiencing and feeling, it is really hard to know what a day is like in their experience. I think we just have their behavior as a clue. Have you asked the staff how she seems on the days when you are not there?
My mother seems to have lost all sense of time. When she asks for a cup of tea she wants to know where it is even before I've gotten the water in the kettle. Those few moments must feel like a long time to her. Other times she'll talk about when so-and-so visited yesterday when in fact that person hasn't been around for a few weeks. Those weeks are collapsed into a day in her memory.
I know that my mother likes getting phone calls and letters. But with the calls it is that she enjoys them at the time they are occurring. It doesn't seem to be the case that she savors them the rest of the day or thinks before going to bed, "It was really nice today to hear from 2 of my kids and to get a letter."
If your mother enjoys having you visit when you are there that may be the most you can know. Enjoy it!
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Medicines for example Aricept, Exelon, Razadyne and Namendal are usually put to use to manage the the signs of Alzheimer's, even though they provide absolutely no hope for remedy.
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