Monday, December 24, 2007

Dementia

Sigh. My grandfather had a mini stroke last year and it left him blind in one eye as well as decreased his mental acuity; he now has trouble finding some words to communicate. The day before I arrived home for the holidays, my grandfather was admitted to the ICU of the hospital because they, my grandmother and mother, feared my grandfather had another stroke. I don't know what makes a stroke a mini and I don't know what made them fear that my grandfather had another one but I do know that my grandfather looked pretty wasted away when I saw him in the hospital.


He is eighty-four years old and is suffering from delusions that my grandmother might be looking for another man. He is throwing tantrums when only my grandmother is there with him and sometimes even trying to choke her although at his age he doesn't have the strength to do so. My mother, a neurologist, tells my grandmother that you can't just tell him it's so silly to think that way. "It's the disease talking," she says.


I don't know what to do.