Within five years the words stopped coming altogether, and she was no longer able to walk or care for herself. I never believed it would end up like this. As we talked, Stephanie fed her mother a bowl of spinach soup and lifted a bottle of orange Gatorade for her to sip through a straw. When Sharon Sheets, who has helped care for her mother, stopped by, Betty smiled. There seemed to be a glimmer of recognition.
Sheets is a nurse and massage therapist.
She, too, is learning about the disease by caring for people who have it. She said she now has a patient, a former literature professor, who can now no longer write, read or tell time. But she is able to work in her garden, wash dishes and do some of the jobs that need to be done around the home. The woman knows she's slipping and tries to conceal or compensate for her deficiencies. The challenge is more difficult with patients who can't talk or who have difficulty communicating, she added.