[serious] How to tell an 8-year-old that her grandfather is losing his mind

[Ben Kenobi]

Just say that your grandfather is very sick and needs help doing small things around the house. That is really all she needs to know.

[loinburger]

.

[Proteus_MST]

-That means he'll be more open to being taken care of than can just be assumed, which is very good news....

I agree ...
my grandfather also had some progressing dementia (not directly Alzheimer ... but something the neurologists weren't able to diagnose or cure).
He tried to keep living independently alone in his appartment (my grandmother had been died of cancer a few years before that) until he couldn't do it anymore.

This point was reached when he got lost in the local suburb (which normally he knew like the back of his hand) and had to brought home by police ... followed, a few weeks thereafter by a situation where one morning he phoned my mother and said he had awoken at a place he doesn't recognize (in fact it was his own appartment in which he had lived for the past 4 decades).
Fortunately after these incidents he agreed to move into a nursing home for the elderly.

(Well, he lived there for less than one year before he had an accident which broke the neck of his femur. This resulted in a surgery from whose narcosis he didn't awake anymore.)

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Another bit experience has taught me - rest homes kill, slowly or quickly, but inherent to the nature of the thing is that they'll encourage a healthy 100 year-old ambulatory lady with a relatively intact mind -great great aunt by marriage- to use her wheelchair because it's safer and she's easier to manage - she died at 105 confined to the wheelchair. The immediate cause of my mother's mother's death was complications from dehydration and not getting her medicine - she fell through the cracks and was neglected to death, even though more than one of her children was visiting daily. It wasn't a bad home, I gather, as homes go; crap just happens.

Gentlemen, never let someone you love go into a home while they can still change their own pants and wipe themselves when they go, if you have a room a bed will fit in and they'll move...

[Elok]

Others' advice seems spot-on, and about what I'd tell my kid. Just out of curiosity, though, why has this duty fallen specifically to you, Loin?

[loinburger]

.

[ColdWizard]

Yeah, in hindsight my niece probably thought that my sister-in-law was chastising Grandpa for forgetting about the dentist, when in reality sister-in-law was more sad than angry about the whole affair (at least that's how I as a 36-year-old interpreted things)

I would explain this and that at times people will seem frustrated at Grandpa, but they aren't angry at him and are just frustrated because his illness.

Everybody is so concerned about my sister-in-law's father that my niece winds up playing second fiddle, i.e. my brother and sister-in-law are too close to my grandfather-in-law to see the effects that this is having on their kids. Meanwhile, I'm Crazy Uncle Loinburger and so I'm allowed to be completely honest with my nieces, which is both a good and a bad position to be in

Maybe have all four of them sit down and discuss that. Parents love the kids, but Grandpa needs extra help, so the kids will need to be patient with the parents and they can always turn to Crazy Uncle Loinburger.

[pchang]

Squeaky wheel gets the oil. Perhaps you should have a talk with the parents about what you see happening with the kids.

[ZEE]

Squeaky wheel gets the oil. Perhaps you should have a talk with the parents about what you see happening with the kids.

I agree. As much as Loin cares it is up to the parents to decide how to tell their daughter.

[SlowwHand]

Not particularly.

[Dinner]

An eight year old probably doesn't understand much so just tell her grandpa isn't feeling well or is sick right now making it hard for him to remember things. As of yet there is no need to tell her it is a permanent condition or is likely to decline rapidly.

[Proteus_MST]

There actually is a german tragycomedy from a few years ago, with Till Schweiger and DIeter Hallervorden, with exactly this topic
(i.e. Granddad having rapidly degrading Alzheimer and the family having to cope with it)
It is called: "Honig im Kopf" (Head full of honey)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Full_of_Honey

Currently there even is a remake of the movie in Production, for the US market, starring Michael Douglas

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-douglas-star-produce-english-904905

This one won't come out before 2018, however

[Berzerker]

Sorry to hear that Loin

there is no cure for Alzheimers

but maybe there's a way to delay the shutdown of cells while plaque is cleaned out

unfortunately one of the side effects of pot is (temporary) memory loss and I dont know if memory recovers after cessation or if elderly people should be partaking, smoking can cause the heart to race a bit and people with Alzheimers might react differently. A drug that may add to their confusion might be unwise. Perhaps the edibles provide a slower release into the system.

Dont know about Idaho but you're surrounded by medical pot states

I'd be asking your doctors about it

[Kidlicious]

There might be actual expert advice you could get on this.
Sorry, and prayers for your family.

[Berzerker]

In separate but related research, his lab found an Alzheimer's drug candidate called J147 that also removes amyloid beta from nerve cells and reduces the inflammatory response in both nerve cells and the brain. It was the study of J147 that led the scientists to discover that endocannabinoids are involved in the removal of amyloid beta and the reduction of inflammation.

clinical trials might be starting up in Washington state asap

unless Congress has banned them

too bad we cant sue politicians for malpractice while they pose as doctors