Biography
Biography: Nancy D. Broz
Abstract
Alzheimer’s caregiving is a lonely place. How do you come to terms with the disease yourself, then try to make the right decisions for your ill spouse -- medical, social, financial decisions. How do you honor the patient’s wishes? Take care of yourself? Help others to help you? The answers aren’t the same for everyone, but options can help.
You must figure out when it’s time to tell others and when you must be the family decision maker. Key factors for me were understanding his perceptual changes, visions, hallucinations, and loss of direction.
I wrote a blog, saw an elder care lawyer, adopted a dog, tried (but failed) to put my spouse in resident placement. Most important was my network of supportive friends.
Completely exhausted by the eighth year, my unusual solution was finding a caregiver who moved in with his young family. It was an alternate style of life, but one that worked well for all of us. We created a new support structure. In this way, I survived