If you were diagnosed with Alzheimer's...

If I were diagnosed with Alzheimers, I would tell Lady Diane where the bullets are for my rifle.

Do you mean that you want the Lady Diane to shoot you if you have alzheimers?

The problem is that by the time you get the diagnosis, you've forgotten where the bullets are, and don't remember what a rifle is for. Otherwise, do it yourself.

mame wrote :



since we are not youngsters anymore , we have some members of family and friends afflicted with alzheimer's .
but i'm not sure what one can do to "prevent my family from watching me progress through this horrible affliction. " - short of deciding to end one's own life .
imo it's very difficult to distinguish between simply "getting on in age" and the onset of alzheimer's - even medical professionals to not find it easy to detect it early .

btw did you know that people in the early stages of "diagnosed" alzheimer's are still allowed to drive a car ?
i recently read a medical study about it and was quite surprised .

aside from having written final instructions not to use "extreme measures" to keep us alive in case of severe illness , we have not considered anything else .

there was a rather famous case in the british royal family , were an older couple - relatives of the queen or prince philip - decided some years ago to end their own lifes before they become too frail to fully enjoy life .
i think it happened sometime in the 1970's - but can't remember the details .

i remember one good friend of ours who become" forgetful" but kept living a pretty happy life . even in the final stages of alzheimer's she was cheerful , happy to see us and recognized us by name . her greatest joy was singing old german songs with us when we visited with her in the home .
she seemed to be the exception , since many other patients simply "seemed" to have no life left in them but still stayed alive .
hbg

roger :

your co-ordination would likely not be good enough to shoot yourself once diagnosed with alzheimer's .
the choice would of course be to do it early on - like today or tomorrow .
one could hardly expect some else to deliver the "coup de grace" .
hbg

We have old people here, some of whom develope alzheimer's. I have to watch as they deteriorate, and nothing for me to do to help. A few months ago I had to put a lock on a door to keep a man I have known for five years from getting outside on his own. He would otherwise get lost. Last week the couple moved to a nursing home. I don't know which of any them would prefer to end it. Most of them probably progress beyond the point where they could consider options before they realize it. Would I end my life before it got to that point? I don't know what I would do.

edgar wrote :



yes , that's the way it will be for most of us , edgar .
hbg

You could be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, in which case you'd still have a lot of lucid moments. It's a progressive disease, not instantaneous. Hopefully, you'd still have TIME to plan.

The thing is, that if you suspect you're getting it, discuss your plan with a friend or family member whom you trust to carry out your plan.

mame :

as i wrote earlier , some people with "early" stage alzheimer's are even permitted to drive .
the people i knew that were aware of the onset of alzheimer's were not ready to throw in the towel at that stage . one of them was a strong swimmer and kept coming to the pool with her husband regularly ... until she moved into a home ... but even there she was not a vegetable . her husband would pick her up regularly to take her for a drive or a walk . they still went to a restaurant once a week until shorthly before she died . she was certainly an exception .
i wonder if most of us don't think "i am exception" ?

(looking at the "gun topic" there are some people on a2k that say : " my mother/grandmother is 80 or 90 - they are sharper than i am - i know i'll ALWAYS be able to handle a gun safely ! ". )

and a few "lucid moments" may not be enough to carry out what you had planned - when you were completely lucid .
hbg

I would have to face a very grim situation to contemplate suicide.

My father had early onset alzheimer's.

Even in his lucid moments he never asked us to kill him. I imagine he didn't want to think of us spending our lives in prison or going through a murder trial.

Because he was so young he was still pretty healthy and strong and there were many things that he did enjoy. I think it was a lot harder on all of us than it was on him.

I'm glad he didn't decide to "spare" us watching him forget us.

That said, I do believe people should have some control over their death and I am proud that I live in the only state enlightened enough to do something to allow people to have some control over their death.

I'd want to kill myself.

Thiung is finding a good and certain and painless way!!!

Though...often people with the mean do not do it...and then it is too late.

I think, too, that there is a period where one's quality of life is not too bad...and there are advances being made with treatment....so...

i guess the trouble with pity may be is that we look and judge from outside...but of course we have no clue how it is inside... i guess it might be a wrong perspective, wrong lens to look through - yet we are only able to evaluate by comparing things and we compare to self.

i don't know if i'd want to die. i hope i will never want to die...but again, who knows. if i was desperately frustrated by not being able to think and remember straight - and aware of it- maybe. and maybe not.

That's true, too. For all any of us know, by the time we are fairly far along with Alzheimer's, we might very well enjoy being exactly as we are.

I recently read an article which said people were objecting the prospect of gene testing being able to tell you whether you will have Alzheimer's or not because there is not known cure or prevention methods.

Modern medical science is such that life extension can surpass quality of life..........this will change over time to a more balanced combination.

Yes-- both my wifes parents had Alzheimer's, one recently died, also a bit of my wife died when he did, it was horrific in every way, but at no time was he worried about havening it and fought to survive right till he became a vegetable... her mum is great, hasn't a clue where she is or what or who anyone is -- or what or where things are.We take her out twice a week and she enjoys every min of it, is happy to go back into the nursing home and all the staff love her.. but my wife and I will have to watch her go the same way as her father... not nice.

Legally, this may not be enough to avoid a trial for manslaughter; read about this court decision:
http://www.exitinternational.net/media/mr19jun08.pdf

Oh well, I wasn't planning on moving to Australia anyway.