0:00How this caregiver trained herself in Alzheimer's care
0:00Alzheimer's disease
0:02is ugly.
0:04And I think at the beginning
0:06I was crystal clear
0:08and aware of all the
0:10personality changes,
0:12all the behavioral changes,
0:14Jessica Guthrie
0:14but I was truly caught off guard
0:15FAMILY CAREGIVER & ADVOCATE
0:16the moment that she started
0:18struggling to walk.
0:19I was like,
0:20“You mean this disease
0:21impacts their mobility?”
0:22I was like,
0:23“No one told me that!”
0:26And I was like,
0:26“Why is she limping?
0:29Why is her walking gait changing?
0:31Oh my gosh.
0:32Why can’t she sit up?
0:33Oh my goodness.
0:34She can no longer stand.”
0:36It just happened so fast.
0:37And I was like,
0:38“This is part of the disease?”
0:40And since I was caught off guard
0:42by that window of time,
0:44I've been really diligent
0:46about understanding
0:47the trajectory of this disease
0:50from that time on
0:51and so that has looked like
0:53any time a nurse comes to the house,
0:56I'm asking all the questions.
0:57I'm overly curious
0:59and then doing my own research.
1:00Or like any time we would
1:02go to the hospital,
1:03or to the doctor,
1:05I would like observe all the things
1:07and then ask questions
1:09to go deeper.
1:10Now, as things have changed,
1:12I'm like, “Oh yeah,
1:14I knew to expect that.
1:15I'm not caught off guard.
1:17OK, cool. I expected it.”
1:18So it changes
1:20my emotional reaction
1:21because I'm more aware of it.
1:23Because I'm like,
1:25taking it all in.
1:26I should say.
