My grandfather with Lewy Body Dementia
"As a child it can be quite confronting to have to be put through such a heartbreaking hurdle in life..."
My grandfather was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia in March 2015 at the age of 74. I was very close to my grandfather, so were my two brothers and my dad but most importantly my mum as she was extremely close to her father making it very difficult to cope.
In December 2014 prior to being diagnosed with dementia my grandfather stayed with my family and I for 8 months, this did have a huge impact on us all and made it quite hard to cope with the fact that this horrible disease was taking over my grandfather’s life. In August 2015, 5 months after being diagnosed with dementia my grandfather got moved into an aged care facility where he stayed for around 2 months, we visited him quite often but it made it really hard to not cry. He then got moved into hospital for a further 6 weeks. In November 2015 my grandfather was given the all clear to be moved back into another aged care facility where he stayed for 5 months until unfortunately passing away on the 4th of April 2016 at the age of 75.
The journey caused a lot of heartache for my family and I and was very saddening at times, due to the fact that he was quite young, was so close to us all, touched our hearts in a really big way and could not talk or barely remember who I was towards the end of his struggling time with dementia. As a child it can be quite confronting to have to be put through such a heartbreaking hurdle in life but its always good to ensure you do the following:
-Talk to someone about how your feeling-don’t bottle up your emotions
-Cry if you have to-it is a really sad time
-Don’t isolate yourself from your friends especially they are there for you- interact and have fun, just because your not thinking about your loved one all the time doesn’t mean you don’t love them
-Try and take your mind off the subject-go for a run, walk the dog etc
-Most importantly respect your family-don’t forget they’re going through the same situation, help them out if possible
I hope by reading this you can know that your not alone in this situation and you should always seek help if you feel very overwhelmed in this situation especially as a child.