Preventing Her Shutdown is an inside look of what an ongoing caregiver spouse goes through in my desperate effort to keep my wife with Alzheimer’s “connected”. Very personal unloaded emotions are expressed and actions taken, never confided to anyone while slowly losing my wife. She doesn’t speak at all. She expresses only some sounds and shows a lot of anxiety. This becomes a real challenge trying to figure out what she wants and how she feels. How do we communicate? How do I talk to her? How does she tell me what she wants or needs? We both had to learn how to interact and communicate with each other. My desperation as a spouse caregiver is that we are constantly “connecting” as this alleviates my greatest fear of a “shutdown”. Detailed is how everyday, every moment I can, I try to create an opportunity to “connect”
Meet Sammie
I am a typical John Doe husband “amateur caregiver” for my wife with Alzheimer´s on my own inventing and creating ways to keep my wife interactive and connected. This book started out as a daily diary noting my wife’s behavior and my reactions which not only helped me ventilate my sorrow but also how to react to her changes and her needs as her caregiver.
I wanted to share these efforts with other “amateur caregivers” like me living this same journey alone with their loved ones.
There is an ever increasing epidemic of the decline of cognitive function and the diseases of dementia! Save Your Brain Now describes how a healthy brain functions and what causes cognitive decline that all too often leads to the diseases of dementia.
In addition, the book provides valuable tools for improve symptoms such as poor memory and brain fog, which can indicate cognitive decline and progress to diseases of dementia. We give hope and practical tips to improve brain health using a multimodal strategy. This strategy includes keys to maintaining excellent cognitive function and even successful strategies that can restore cognitive function even if you are suffering from diseases of dementia.
The Co-authors Naturopathic Doctor, Peter Wilhelmsson and Neuroscientist, Hayde Bolouri both reside in Sweden and have extensive training in functional medicine and brain health.
Meet Peter Wilhelmsson
A.A. Journalism,Valley College, Van Nuys, 1972 B.A. History Cal State Northridge, 1974. M.A. English Cal State Northridge, 1976 Herbal Medicine training Wild Rose College 1978 Naturopathic doctor, European College of Natural Medicine 1984 Anti Aging practitioner and advanced fellow (ABAAHP), 2017 Post Graduate Cognitive health certification with Functional Medicine Institute of Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP) 2019 Naturopathic Medical Practice since 1979 Author of 14 books in Health genre from 1986 to 2019 in Swedish, English,Finish and Korean. Encyclopedia of Nutritional Medicine, Sports Nutrition,Allergies, Candiasis, etc.
This book is for those who find themselves in a primary or secondary caregiving role for an aging parent or other loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease or other type of dementia. Part memoir, part self-help guide, I hope it will serve as the roadmap I wish I had and help other caregivers know what to expect and how to plan for the challenges they are likely to face.
Managing the comfort, health, safety and finances of a loved one in their declining years is not easy. Especially if that loved one increasingly becomes depressed, agitated, delusional, or worse. The physical, mental and even spiritual demands can come on gradually, or quickly. They can re-open old conflicts within a family and usually do eventually take over the primary caregiver’s life.
In addition to presenting five rules for being a caregiver that I learned over the course of dealing with my mother’s 15-year plus struggle, in clear, plain, non-medical jargon I discuss the differences between the practical and the clinical definitions of Alzheimer’s and dementia for both the patient and the caregiver. I talk about the stages of being a caregiver in addition to the stages of the disease, the importance of coping with and managing the associated stress that comes with being a caregiver, the pros and cons of different types of care facilities and treatment options to consider, what to look for, what to watch out for and how to make the most out of the time you have left with your loved one.
I hope that by being honest about my journey and sharing tips for admitting to and coping with the stress of being a caregiver, other caregivers will understand the importance of caring for themselves on their own caregiving journeys. Because no matter how great a job you’re doing as a caregiver, a dead caregiver is the worst caregiver of all.
Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Award – Young Adult Social Issues “A love letter to family relationships and Alaskan life, No Fences in Alaska is a gratifying young adult novel.” -Foreword Reviews
“All told, readers will find No Fences in Alaska impossible to put down.” -BlueInk Starred Review
At sixteen years old, Harper Lyon’s life is spinning out of control. She threatens her parents with suicide unless she can meet her drug-dealing boyfriend, a college student who doesn’t know she’s pregnant. Cooper Lyons, her estranged grandfather, lives in rural Alaska with only his dog and cat for company. He has just been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, and he doesn’t plan on letting the disease run its course. Harper needs to escape her parents and decide what to do about the baby. She and her grandpa are worlds apart, but they may be exactly what the other needs. When Harper calls her grandfather, he welcomes the opportunity to help her and redeem his previous failure with his daughter Heather, who died from a drug overdose years ago.
