Dementia is an umbrella term that describes lots of different
conditions that can give rise to things like memory problems,
disorientation, communication problems. There are about 400,
more than 400, in fact.
Different kinds of dementia. The one that everyone's heard of
is probably Alzheimer's disease.
John was showing signs of being a
lot tireder all the time.
Didn't matter how much sleep he got.
It didn't matter whether we were on holiday,
He was still very tired.
You had minor things just in forgetfulness,
and you had the more major things where he just
wasn't getting things and his driving was deteriorating a bit
as well.
Surely she had had expressed on numerous occasions that I
wasn't getting certain things right,
probably through forgetfulness. And my first was here,
some of the many of my people I work with.
I like that. No big deal.
But you hear it enough times you think,
well in the yellow, OK,
I'll go and see someone.
Now at the moment, there is no single positive test
for dementia.
There's no blood test you can take that will tell
you've got Alzheimer's disease or any other form of dementia.
So dementia is currently diagnosed by process of eliminating everything
else it could possibly be what are you doing home?
I don't think John really thought
about dementia because he was more,
I suppose, in denial in the sense he
I will be better once I've had a holiday.
I'll be better when I've had a bit more rest.
That I thought. And if you live with somebody,
you pick up the science easier than they would because
you're seeing it all the time and you're thinking,
this isn't right, this isn't
how you were, you know,
2345 years ago. If you're able to get a diagnosis
at an earlier stage,
you're then in a position where you can begin to
plan,
you can make plans for how you want the rest
of your life to be.
Jon finds quite difficult to look through legal documents now.
And because of his memory,
if he's reading a page,
he wouldn't remember it all.
So that falls. I found out a lot of that
falls on to me.
Obviously when it comes to financial planning in terms of
family,
everyone should obviously have a will.
And just because you have a diagnosis of dementia doesn't
mean you can't take out a will.
So you need to sort the will out.
You need to take a lasting power of attorney.
Now this is a device that will enable someone both
to take care of your finances should you become incapable
of doing so further down the line,
but also to make to make health decisions for you
and perhaps make decisions about where you know where where
you live.
You have to concentrate on living in the present.
I mean,
I can see that some might think,
well, that's really denying the future.
I think, well, it doesn't feel like that because
the future is is something else.
If the present holds many good things,
as it happily for me
it does,
I'll I'll suspend things in the present
for the time being.
The help is out there and I mean the doctors
will point you in the right direction.
You know you can get help and really the earlier
you ask for it,
the better. And even if you don't fancy going on
to a support group or whatever,
because we haven't done everything we've been offered,
it's quite interesting to
get yourself involved so that you see how other people
are dealing with it.
There are, you know, roughly around
700,000 people with dementia in the UK.
And someone recently said, you know,
once you've met one person with dementia,
you've met one person with dementia.
So everyone's experience of dementia is different as dementia progresses.
You probably find that you need
more and more support, but the precise kind of support
that you need depends very much on you,
on the kind of symptoms you're having and also what
you want.
I've been surprised at just how supportive people are.
One is
very
grateful to those that help from whatever source
they might come friends, family
societies, employers. Oh, the world is kind of
helpful place I have found.