Alzheimerr's disease, dementia and nursing homes

A daughter had to move her father with Alzheimer's to a nursing home
Here are her thoughts as published ih the Shreveport Times on August 15

Dear David: Recently, I had to move my father into a nursing home when his behavior started to scare my two young children. He lived with us for several months and, at first, it was good to have him here, even though he needed a lot of help physically. He suffers from dementia, which became much worse as the months progressed. He started to sleep very erratically, would wake up the household in the middle of the night talking to himself very loudly and in an angry tone. As his sleep pattern became more and more erratic, he became more and more difficult for all of us to live with. His doctor tried several medications, but nothing seemed to help. Ultimately, we had to make the decision to move him to a nursing home because it wasn't fair to continue to subject the children to Dad's very strange behavior. The problem I'm having is that I'm wracked with guilt, even though I know we've done the right thing. I feel terrible that my own children became so afraid of my dad, whom I adore, and I feel awful that Dad is now around strangers instead of family. — Distressed Daughter

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