Alzheimer's Reading Room-Understanding the person with dementia

Bo DeMarco is a blogger who started blogging when his wife developed Alzheimer's disease.  He writes good stuff and is quite connected to recent developments.  My favorite topics of his are when he writes with insight into what the experience of Alzheimer's is like.

He writes a wonderful post on the conflict surrounding feeding issues but the feeding is almost a side topic when he gets down to it.  My favorite quote:

While a person living with Alzheimer's can't remember, they are full of feelings and emotions.

Here are some others

Why is it so hard to understand that a person living with Alzheimer's forgets? A person living with dementia is deeply forgetful.

I feel confident when I say this -- you won't be able to convince a person who is deeply forgetful that they are wrong, and you won't be able to convince them that your reality is the true reality. They can't remember like you or me, so they really cannot comprehend your point of view.When you do this you are asking the person who is deeply forgetful to come back into your world. They cannot do this.

One of the most difficult  aspects of caregiving that I see, is trying to understand the loved one from a new point of view.  It is so easy for me to say so as a clinician but really hard to do in daily life.  I get it somewhat but on another level, only the caregiver really gets it.  This post is well worth reading.