Monica Vargas Mom's Journey5437

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. Mom was formally diagnosed with dementia/Alzheimer's in January of 2016.  We had been noticing some changes in her personality for a while, but attributed it to stress, prolonged grief and just not being focused.  Unfortunately, it was not due to "normal aging" processes.  After seeing her primary physician, a neurologist and then a Neuropsychiatrist, a multitude of tests and office visits, we were informed that she had a form of dementia.  How could this happen?  Our mom was "healthy" otherwise! There had to be a mistake somewhere...  Sadly, we soon learned that there had not been any mistake in diagnosis.  It's been a struggle to understand and to learn how to manage her illness.  She has always been a very strong, independent and proud woman.  It has been hard to see what this disease has done, and continues to do, to her.  She is no longer the self-confident, powerful force we grew up with.  We have had a complete paradigm shift and our roles have become reversed. It takes a lot of patience and diligence to answer the same questions repeatedly throughout the day.  It's frustrating to have to explain simple tasks down to the smallest details.  It's hard not to feel anger at the disease for what it's taken from her, from us.  We find ourselves struggling daily with our faith and are trying so hard to allow her whatever freedom she can safely maintain.