{"id":2955,"date":"2000-09-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-09-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/from-a-patient\/"},"modified":"2021-06-23T19:15:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T19:15:39","slug":"from-a-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/from-a-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"From A Patient"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-content\"><p>At some point during the further progression of Alzheimer&#8217;s disease in my life, my wife and grown children will probably have to consider placing me in an assisted living facility, nursing home or convalescent center.<\/p>\n<p>Today, while I still have cognitive ability, I want to provide them with my opinion regarding this matter.<\/p>\n<p>My dear loved ones:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You are faced with making a decision you would rather not make. I understand and have come to know that, at times, love, does indeed hurt.<\/li>\n<li>You love your father as I have loved you. We have grown to respect each other&#8217;s opinion, even when it is contrary to our own.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And, if I can no longer speak in the future, you must know that I would always want to be home, here with your mother, here with the love I have come to know and derive comfort from. And, yet, even as you have known me, you must realize there are health concerns which must be placed at a higher priority than love.<\/p>\n<p>There are two significant advantages, which come to mind, that assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and convalescent centers generally offer over what home care can provide, These are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>24 hour a day medically trained staff.<\/li>\n<li>Programs designed to stimulate our minds and the exercise of our physical bodies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You see, my grown children, even if you offer your mother your help to keep me home, just a little longer, you are only deferring an inevitable decision.<\/p>\n<p>Please, place me in a long term care facility when either of these two situations arise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When you see stress building up in your mother. When you may<br \/>\nobserve signs that her mental and physical well-being are suffering because of the care she is trying hee best to provide to me.<\/li>\n<li>When my own physical and mental well-being dictate assistance provided to me beyond what any one person at home maybe able to offer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At times, love may require self-sacrifice. I love you and your mother and do not want my situation, which is something bad, to become something worse.<\/p>\n<p>Helen Keller once wrote:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am only one; but still I am one.<br \/>\nI cannot do everything, but still I can do something.<br \/>\nI will not refuse to do the something I can do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You love me. You will do as I ask, even if it hurts. Sometimes, love is this way.<\/p>\n<p>My dear ones: Let me do the something I can still do.<\/p>\n<p>Copyrighted Tim Brennan 09\/27\/00<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Alzheimer&#8217;s patient writes a letter to his loved ones while he still has his cognitive ability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1144],"class_list":["post-2955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-diseases-illnesses-conditions"],"authors":[{"term_id":1144,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"tim-brennan","display_name":"Tim Brennan","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4380,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions\/4380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/care-givers.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}