My mum’s Alzheimer recovery story continues

As you all know, about 1.5 years ago, in June 2022 my mother recovered from 18 years of drifting into Alzheimer. When I say recovered, I mean that most of the symptoms of defining Alzheimer, changed and we got our mother back. I spent 3 months with her 24/7 and during this time, I have noticed how her food, her medications, her lack of movement, lack of interaction only made her disappear.

 If you are familiar with having a family member alive but not really there, you know how devastating it is to witness a loved one disappearing slowly. My family witnessed it for 18 years.
Her recovery was a miracle because we, including doctors and all those around us, thought that it was irreversible… until I changed her diet to low carb, increased her healthy fat content, cut all her medication and all her supplements, took her to see a chiropractor, changed her environment and worked on her mental state and when I left her , 3 month later, my mother, who didn’t know who we were, couldn’t say one reasonable sentence, cook, walk, asked the same question 30 to 40 times, she knew who I was, she remembered names, she started cooking, moved to a new apartment next to my sisters, she went to an elders’ club 3 times a week and started doing incredible art pieces requiring fine motor skills she has lost 6 years prior. She was clear enough to sell her apartment. No doctors’ visits, no supplements since.

In November 2023, I came to spend two months with my mother (while her caretaker, who lives with her, is going to visit her own family in the Philippines). I came about a week before the caretaker was planning to leave, and I’m planning to stay about 10 days after the caretaker will be back.  

 I thought I would use this opportunity to give her another boost to her health and wellbeing. I did that twice in the past. Once when my mother (and my dad) came to Australia to heal 6 years ago and the second time when I came to put her in a home for Alzheimer people (After my dad’s passing) which ended up with her amazing recovery.  I am convinced I will do it again.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Because changing her food to eating keto-low carb was a key change in this process.
The tool I had last time was to record, record, and record everything I see so I can notice the delicate changes for good or bad. I call this method, the Sherlock Holmes of human behavior. Only when you record the small things, you can see patterns and avoid falling into your personal biases. (see what you want to see or what you are afraid to notice) The day I arrived, I started with the same strategy.

I have been here for 10 days, and this is what I discovered so far:

1. She was very excited before I came and was very concerned that my husband would be by himself, without me. Even when we talked to him on the phone several times, she knew his name and asked him several times if he is Ok being on his own. (over the weak, I figured she knew his name because I used it may times)
2. She asked several times how long my visit would be and when I said 2 months, she laughed in excitement, not believing it.
3. She didn’t fully get the idea that I have about 24 hours flight but asked several times how long the flight is.
4. When I entered, she was happy and cried in joy (I did too). She recognized me but didn’t know my name.
5. She walks bended and sometimes when no one is watching, she walks straight.
6. She is losing her memory, but she is not back to where she was before.
7. On the fourth day of my visit, she called me, using my name.
8. She can be on her own for up to 2 hours and she is fine. Maybe, maybe she even likes it.
9. She can cook if she knows she has guests. Without guests, she let the caretaker cook.
10. She eats carbs and more carbs and too many carbs. That’s easy. I told the caretaker when I came that I’m on Keto, so she made sure mum and I eat lots of protein and less carbs. I can already see a difference. I could swear she lost a bit of weight (She has about 7-10 kg extra but that’s nothing compared to her being 20 to 30 kg extra most of her life)
11. She asks for bread in every meal. (We don’t give her)
12. With this way of eating, she has no way of getting enough proteins.
13. She is very lonely. My siblings come to visit with my niece and nephews but that is only for a short time, and she is very happy but can’t manage them for too long. Catch 22!
14. She has a good routine for getting up in the morning and going to sleep and she goes for an afternoon rest every day for about 2 hours. At around 9pm, she feels tired, and she gets herself ready for sleep.
15. She finds it hard to go to sleep if I stay awake. She comes to me every 5 minutes and tells me to go to sleep. My sister said that when she came for a sleepover with her daughter, my mum behaved the same. She felt uncomfortable going to sleep when someone else was awake.
16. She started refusing to take a shower about a month or two before I came, but since I came, she said she didn’t want to take a shower but went anyway.
17. She goes to the elders’ club between 3 to 4 times a week. She enjoys going there. in one of the conversations, I had with her (I got into her bed, and we had a good bonding time) she said she finds it hard to get up and do things but “there is nothing to do at home” and she shared how nice and kind people are in the elder’s club. Eventually she said, “It is good to go there. It is nice”
18. On other occasions she was concerned that if her caretaker is leaving to visit her family, she won’t go to the elders’ club.
19. A taxi picks her up at 8:30 after the driver calls at 8:20 to ask her to come down (she lives in a building). In the van, there are many elders. The same driver drops her back at around 1:20pm. She usually goes with the caretaker who stays there (with other caretakers who bring their elders). I asked her caretaker to put her in the taxi and come pick her up at 1:20 from the pickup place (underneath mum’s building) that went very well.
20. In the mornings she goes to the elder’s club, she wakes up at 7am. The mornings she is home, she wakes up at 9:00am.
21. She does Qigong with the caretaker every morning. (in front of the TV)
22. She refuses to get out of the house, so she is not moving a lot. I managed to get her out of the house once with a rolling handle she could lean on. I leaned on it, and she walked. She stopped every 100 meters and said it is hard, I said “Yes, I know” and kept going, she followed me. On the way to the park (maybe 800 meters), she walked bended, on the way back, she walked totally straight. (I took a photo, so no one says I made it up)
23. She puts the music on TV and sits there the whole time she is home. (Thank God it is not the news). She enjoys watching funny animals or cute babies’ videos as well.
24. She colors in most of the time in front of the TV. Last time I came she colored in using one or two colors only. It has improved significantly during my last visit. She is back to one color. I talked to her about it, and we sat together to add more colors but when she goes back to doing it on her own, she is back to one or two colors only. I need to work on that!  
25. There is a routine that every Friday one of my siblings takes her/ come to be with her for She is very excited and happy about it, though, only when people come to her, she remembers it fondly and if she goes to their house, she doesn’t consider it as a visit.
26. She behaves as if she can’t lift her hands up high but… when she needs to take a cup from the top shelf, she can do it perfectly.
27. When the grandkids come for a visit, she is happy and excited for 2-3 minutes but after 10 to 15 minutes she loses interest in them and goes to the kitchen, moving things from one place to the other.
28. She is still very excited when my brother comes for a visit (we are 4 sisters one brother) and does everything to impress him with food.
29. She is stingy to the max. (OMG!) She turns the lights on when we are sitting to eat. She is stressed about the timer light on the microwave. This week, I made Chicken Schnitzel for my whole family to join us, she freaked out that I have made “too much” and tried to put it back in the freezer. We all lie to her that things cost very little or that because she is old (84 years old) she doesn’t pay electricity or water bills.
30. The caretaker said to me that when she buys new things, mum asked her “how much it cost?”
31. She loves babies. It is amazing to see her watching babies. As if she is back to life. She can be grumpy, in pain, bored, unmotivated and the second she sees a baby, a toddler or a video with young children, she forgets all her pain and she is so warm and loving.
32. From time to time, she plays with computer games on her tablet. I watched her playing Mah Jong and she did great.
33. She asked the caretaker “Why my daughters never say anything about him” (my dad who passed away 1.5 years ago)
34. I brought Sudoku teaching printed sheets (In a full sudoku, in every square I erased one or two digits and asked my sister to print me about 100 copies) and she did great. When she finished it, I was so excited and hugged her and said, “Well done mum, you did it” and she said to me “don’t look at me like that. I’m not so stupid.” I told her “I know you are smart; this is why I brought you this” I reminded her that my dad was a Sudoku wizard, and she said an endearing phrase about him.

My goal was to improve her mobility and cognitive functions. My first strategy is: change her diet to eating low carb and get her moving more. The journey starts now…

Promise to keep you updated.
hugs
Ronit

The Happiness Coach
https://www.behappyinlife.com
https://www.ronitbaras.com/