Cherry Tree, Cat, and Train

 

It took two or three years for a doctor to give my mother a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Those were the hardest days of my life. At my mother’s place of work, her coworkers had suspected that she had a medical problem. So I took her to many hospitals. But, at that time, no doctor was able to determine what she had. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, identifying it is very difficult, even for doctors.

All doctors used the dementia rating scale that Dr. Hasegawa had established. It involved a doctor asking a patient some questions. Depending on the answers, the doctor would determine whether or not the patient had a disease. An example follows in the next paragraph.

The doctor said to the patient, “Please memorize these words: cherry tree, cat, and train. I will ask you to remember them later.” Then the doctor asked a few different questions. Subsequently, the doctor asked the patient, “Can you remember the three words I said?” If the patient’s condition was serious, it was difficult for him/her to respond.

My mother’s case was different. She was experiencing the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Hence, she answered perfectly. Furthermore, many doctors let her memorize the three words repeatedly. Thus, she had no difficulty remembering them.

Having anticipated this kind of case, Dr. Hasegawa created a test B, which employed the words, “apricot tree, dog, and bicycle.” However, no doctor used test B.

Dr. Hasegawa’s test words described a plant, an animal, and a vehicle. Hence, doctors could quite conceivably have used “willow tree, monkey, and car” or “baobab tree, tyrannosaurus rex, and Segway.” But none of the doctors we met had used either option.

I have no hard feelings regarding the doctors who failed to identify my mother’s disease. But I suspect that doctors are basically unimaginative people.

Picture by piangtawan

More Than Three Caregivers

 

It is said that if you take care of a patient with Alzheimer’s at your home, you need more than three caregivers. A patient with Alzheimer’s needs a 24-hour care every day. We should recognize that caregiving is a job. Being paid or unpaid does not matter. When only one or two workers are assigned in a workplace needing 24-hour work every day, they get sick. It should be eight hours per person, so that workplace needs more than three workers. A patient with Alzheimer’s should not be taken care of by less than three caregivers.

In our case, my father, my wife, and I had achieved a short-term three-caregiver system. Before I got married, the caregivers were just my father and me. After my father passed away, the caregivers were just my wife and me. Of course, we often used day service and short stay. However, we had difficult days.

A patient with Alzheimer’s needs three caregivers, but if the caregivers want to pursue their careers and their hobbies, there should be more caregivers.

Taking care of a patient with Alzheimer’s is not a complicated job. It is simple if it is for a short time. However, many caregivers get sick, commit suicide, and even commit murder in Japan. These situations happen because most of them do their jobs for a long time without any break. Any job could make people insane if that is the case.

In Japan, hundreds of caregivers commit suicide and murder. The government is trying to establish socialized caregiving systems. Of course, we need those systems, but we should treat caregivers as family members, relatives, and neighbors. That is a respectable lifesaving action.

Picture by hobi

Sandwich

 

When I was a university student, I almost did not attend my classes. I was crazy about acting on stage. I was an amateur actor.

One evening, I happened to meet a girl at a subway station whom I got acquainted on a theatrical event. She was tremendously beautiful. We had not met for months. We enjoyed chatting on the platform. When the train approached, she whispered, “I am hungry.” It was dinnertime. Now I believe she made a great chance to ask for a dinner. If I had taken the chance, I would have a different life. However, I was a stupid young man.

“Yes! I have a sandwich. I will give it to you,” I said.

Unbelievably, I took out a sandwich from my bag and gave it her. That was my leftover lunch. She burst out laughing, but I could not understand why. I thought, I gave her my precious sandwich, but why was she laughing?

She was a beautiful, perfect, sweet lady. After she laughed, she ate my sandwich, smiling.

If I had recognized her sign at that time, it would have never happened. In those days, I was not well-off. I was a nameless amateur actor. I did not even have ten dollars in my wallet. How could I ask her for dinner?

Today I am smarter and richer, but not young.

Picture by takagix

 

Signature

 

 At an early stage of her Alzheimer’s disease, my mother had become unable to write her own signature. In most cases, Alzheimer’s patients can still write their signature at the later stages because such a skill is part of crystallized intelligence, as people do it many times in their life. Repeated practice protects some intelligence from the disease, but in my mother’s case, she had already lost her signature-writing ability early on. She had two signatures: her real name and her business name. The pronunciations are the same but the spellings are different.

Whenever she tried to write her signature, she needed to know if it was a private situation or a business situation. Then she would get confused and would stop writing.

Signing one’s name is a very important ability for Alzheimer’s disease patients. Banks or public offices ask for their own handwritten signature. In most cases, they refuse to accept someone else’s signature on behalf of the patients. For example, if a patient wants to sign a will, their signature can validate a will that was written by their lawyer. A will could be a tool that aging people can use; if a patient doesn’t have control over their will, it could be disadvantageous for both the patient and their caregivers.

Some people change their name when they marry. Some people use pen names. Most of my theater friends use stage names. If these people, including myself, had Alzheimer’s disease, we could encounter serious problems.

Are there any good solutions to this?

Picture by sashkin7

Closely Cropped Head

 

  I don’t know what it means in the English-speaking world. In Japan, closely cropping one’s head is a way to express apology. It is not popular, and it is too classic, but it still works.

When I was about 20 years old, I made huge mistakes. I decided to closely crop my head. It was my first time, and it was a fresh experience. Feeling the wind or sunshine on my scalp was a totally new experience.

But I also had a trouble because of the hairstyle.

In those days, I had a part-time job at a restaurant very late at night. Public transportation wasn’t available at midnight. I commute to the restaurant by motorbike. But one day, my motorbike was stolen, but I couldn’t take a break from my job. So I rode a taxi to the restaurant. My daily wage was the same as the taxi fare.

On the first day, after I finished work, I tried to hail a taxi. But all the taxis ignored me. They obviously saw me but went away. This has never happened in my life, and I wondered why. I had a guess: it was because of my closely cropped head. In Japan, people who closely crop their head are usually Buddhist monks, high school baseball players, some extremists, ex-cons, and yakuza. Buddhist monks and high school baseball players would never hail a taxi at night. Taxi drivers were afraid of me because of my hairstyle.

So I wore a hood and hid my head. Then I hailed a taxi, which stopped in front of me. After getting in the taxi, I took off my hood and showed my head to the taxi driver. He was surprised. I told some jokes to help him relax, but I failed. He didn’t even smile at me.

I hope I don’t make any more huge mistakes in my life, and if I do, I want to express my apology in a different way.

Picture by freehandz