Sad. Confused.
My (step-)mother died about three hours ago.
She had Pick's Disease, more properly known as Frontal Lobar Atrophy, which is as nasty as it sounds; everything you know about Alzheimer's, with personality changes to boot.
So it's over, which is some relief, although it was totally unexpected -- we had expected deterioration, but we'd anticipated a period of transition from home to full-time care as the disease progressed. But then, the prognosis was for between two and ten years, and it's been 26 months since the diagnosis.
The hardest thing right now is that the whole family, including all my 7 nephews/nieces, but apart from me, seems to be in one place over there -- including Pip and her kids, and she lives in DC. I suppose I should be planning on getting there, but obviously (it's only been three hours) there's no plans or stuff, and the impulse to leap on a plane is unlikely to help anyone (in fact, probably the opposite). I want/need to Do Something, but, really, there's no hurry any more...
She had Pick's Disease, more properly known as Frontal Lobar Atrophy, which is as nasty as it sounds; everything you know about Alzheimer's, with personality changes to boot.
So it's over, which is some relief, although it was totally unexpected -- we had expected deterioration, but we'd anticipated a period of transition from home to full-time care as the disease progressed. But then, the prognosis was for between two and ten years, and it's been 26 months since the diagnosis.
The hardest thing right now is that the whole family, including all my 7 nephews/nieces, but apart from me, seems to be in one place over there -- including Pip and her kids, and she lives in DC. I suppose I should be planning on getting there, but obviously (it's only been three hours) there's no plans or stuff, and the impulse to leap on a plane is unlikely to help anyone (in fact, probably the opposite). I want/need to Do Something, but, really, there's no hurry any more...