To contact Going Gentle Into That Good Night, you can either comment here on a blog post or you can email me directly.
Feel free to ask me any questions you have about dementias and Alzheimer’s Disease – medical, behavioral, caregiving, etc. – and I will personally respond to you with detail information and resources. If I don’t know an answer from my experience and research, then I’ll find as much information as I can and point you to resources that may be able to help you.
I strongly urge you to read both of the books I have written and published on dementias and Alzheimer’s Disease. There are no other books like them. They offer concrete, practical, and definitive information and guidance that you can start using and implementing TODAY!
Thank you!
8 Comments
Going Gentle Into That Good Night 
Hi – Wanted you to know I nominated your blog for the Very Inspiring Blog award. Thanks for all you do. Best, Kay
http://dealingwithdementia.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/its-nice-to-be-liked/
Thank you so much, Kay! I really appreciate it and would definitely include your blog in mine as well. There aren’t many posts you do that I don’t share them on social media and in my online support group. Thank you for all you do! Sandra
My sister in law has Korsakoff syndrome. After 2 hospital stays and a month in a nursing home she is now living with us. I take her to therapy 3 times a week and she always surprises me with how well she does. However, unless I wake her up she could sleep past 2pm. And when awake she just sits on the couch until time for bed. We gave her a list of activities to do and when pushed she will do a few minutes of something. Is this part of the brain damage, depression or what? I am tired of pushing and don’t know what else to try. There is very little info. about how to help these people.
It could be a combination of progression of the neurological disease and depression. You didn’t say how long she’s been diagnosed with Karsakoff syndrome, but sleeping increases as the steps progress through dementia. If she’s got depression on top of that, then she’ll sleep more. And, then, of course, as she reaches the end stages of the disease, her body will start shutting down and she will sleep more than she is awake.
The first step I would recommend would be to talk to her primary care provider about adding Citalopram (brand name: Selexa) at 40 mg to her daily medications. That’s a therapeutic dose of an anti-depressant that may help (again, depending on where she is in the disease process). Another thing I would recommend is playing music that she likes or liked when she was younger. Music doesn’t reverse the disease, but it can stimulate good long-term memories and have a positive affect on mood.
If you can give me a little more information about her age and how long she’s been diagnosed, I will be able to help you more specifically.
Take good care and let me know how else I can help you.
who is the author of the books and this blog?
My name is Sandra Ross. I was the primary caregiver for my mom, who had vascular dementia, Lewy Body dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. In the course of going through this journey of dementias with my mom, I found little practical and applicable information to guide us and to help me understand both the big picture and how to handle the day-to-day, while providing the best and most loving care for my mom.
As a result, after her death in 2012, I decided the best way I could honor my mom and help other people on this journey was to pay forward what I had learned and to try to get as much real world and practical – and well-researched – information in one place.
The books have been an outgrowth of that.
My husband just died ( before Christmas) from a very bad fall. He was diagnosed with CBD in March of this year. He was falling about once a week but the last one was down some cement stairs in the garage–I should have been right there with him but I wasn’t–He had lost his coordination on his left side and was beginning to have some speech issues–Not sleeping, extreme fatigue and some behavioral problems.(he would snap and lose his temper for no reason at all) We were researching wheel chairs because of his inbalance–Sandra you’ve helped me so much-with this–I still have extreme guilt about his fall-as I’m sure I will for a very long time–he was 80 when he died. His first symptoms showed up in 2013-when he couldn’t play the piano anymore.
Oh Mary, I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s CBD and death in December. Dementia is cruel in so many ways to our loved ones and I think the hardest part, in some ways, is being helpless to stop its progression. I know you took excellent care of him, but I also understand the guilt about his fall.
My mama had a few falls that I just couldn’t reach her in time to stop – fortunately, nothing broken, but nasty bruising – and I still struggle at times when I remember them with guilt because I couldn’t keep her safe and that was my job.
The healing from it takes time, so try to be kind and gentle to yourself as that process rolls out into the future. It’s not easy at first, but eventually a measure of peace comes with the understanding that we loved them and gave them the absolute best of ourselves that we were able.
I’m glad this blog has helped you. Please feel free to reach out as you grieve and heal. I’m a good listener and I’m here to help as I am able.
Big hugs,
Sandra