Alzheimer's Diary

Alzheimer's Diary 7 million people in the USA have Alzheimer's disease. Soon it will be 30 million. I encourage you to add your own stories.

This page is a diary of anecdotes from my wife's Alzheimer's that may be of interest to others.

01/30/2026

One thing I learn when I tell Alzheimer's stories is that most people have their own, usually about grandparents or parents. I am not alone.

But I know only one person whose spouse had Alzheimer's. It is different when it's the only person you talk to for most of your days.

So forgive me if I talk to much when I see you!

12/19/2025

My wife got new hearing aids. Much better! Now I don't have to repeat myself as often. Except now she can hear the heat come on, and asks me what it is. Every...single...time...

Throwing these out. My wife can no longer read them.
12/04/2025

Throwing these out. My wife can no longer read them.

11/06/2025

I try to invite my wife's friends to dinner or coffee, and I make a serious effort to leave them alone to talk, because if I am there, the conversations speeds up to a point where my wife cannot participate. But I never manage to stay out of it for the whole time. I myself am starved for fluid conversation, and need someone else to talk to as much as she does. What is the answer? Maybe I should leave them alone in the house and meet a friend to talk to while they talk?? Has anyone else figured this out??

11/06/2025

My wife is getting new hearing aids. This morning the old ones quit working. No problem, I said. You will have new ones in about an hour. But then I got a call that the new ones had a defect and needed to be returned. Maybe a week, or less. So we took the old ones in to be repaired. They also have to be returned. About a week. My wife doesn't remember any of this. She discovers anew each hour that a hearing aid is missing and she can't hear me. I have to explain the above every hour at THE TOP OF MY VOICE. It is hard not to sound angry at that volume. It is going to be a long week...

11/02/2025

It is an exciting moment. A new conversation ...that we will have 16 more times before bedtime...

10/10/2025

One of the hardest things about Alzheimer's is the endless repetition. It takes saying simple things 3 times to be understood. And then 15 minutes later you have the same conversation again because the first was forgotten. And the second, and the third. Now imagine that when you have a sore throat and would rather not talk at all...

09/17/2025

Recently many people have marveled that I open car doors for my wife and hold her hand walking across the parking lot. I guess that is unusual these days. They make remarks like "Chivalry is not dead." I smile and say "no, it isn't". I do not tell them that my wife still has not figured out the Tesla door handles after a year, or that she is likely to stumble on any bump or curb in the parking lot.

09/05/2025

The old rotary dial phones would actually be better for people with Alzheimer's. You don't have to find any buttons to answer them or hang them up.

08/31/2025

My wife planted a fig tree 20 some years ago. Usually it is very productive, but some years it freezes and it takes a season or two to recover. This year it is prolific. It is always exciting to harvest and figure out what to do with all the figs. This year I made a fig pie. I offered my wife a piece. She said "what's a fig?".

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