Quote Originally Posted by Freedom View Post
I can't answer this, as I have been pondering such things myself.

My Dad has Alzheimer's. Every day, I lose a bit more of him. He still knows who I am, but he is so confused, can't follow a conversation, read a newspaper, follow a TV show.

I wonder sometimes why I am giving him the Aricept and Namenda pills. They neither cure nor stop the progress of this horrid disease.

I can understand the insulin, he has been on that for almost 10 years now and it controls his diabetes so he can do things, be himself. I can also understand most of the other meds he is on.

But the ones for the Alzheimer's, I just don't know. The very fact that I think this way gets me upset and I cry. What kind of daughter does this make me? It is a very touchy issue here.
First of all Sandie, let me say that I think you're a saint for what you're doing for Dad. Many people just couldn't handle it, and I don't really know if I could or not. Fortunately, Alzheimer's is something that has never hit home in my family.

My sister in law encountered a care giving situation with my brother. He suffered a massive stroke, and then cancer when he was only 59. He was left totally dependent on others for his care. He didn't want to live this way, and even begged his wife to help him end his suffering - which of course she didn't. He slipped further away every day, but his wife cared for him at home and never put him in a nursing home. She slept on the floor on a mattress next to his hospital bed so that she could hear if he was in distress during the night. She tube fed him, changed his diapers, bathed him, turned him every couple of hours, and all this done on her own with the occasional help of a visiting nurse. He lived like this for 5 years, and his last 18 months, he was comatose, and he mercifully passed on after he contracted pneumonia.

He never wanted to exist this way as he had always been a healthy and active and productive person. When is enough, enough? I wish there was an answer...........