Dementia

According to Wikipedia, Dementia is a broad category of brain diseases that cause long term loss of the ability to think and reason clearly that is severe enough to affect a person's daily functioning. For the diagnosis to be present it must be a change from how the person was previously.[1]

I've heard of the condition before but never really understood what it was. The Philippines' superstar Nora Aunor in fact, just finished filming this interesting and brilliant (haven't watched it but certainly will) film titled Dementia but that was the closest (haha, closest? not even!) encounter I've had with the condition.

Until last Sunday, our family went to visit an aunt in Bacoor, Cavite who, all the while I thought was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Auntie Lety suffered a stroke just a few months back and from then, started losing her memory, acting like a child, and talking about her younger years. Only when I got to chat with her daughter, one of my favorite cousins Ate Annie did I learn that it was actually Dementia that hit my aunt. She said it was a result of the stroke. Something ticked in her brain that caused the loss of memory.

We stayed in her house from 930am till around 130pm and her mood swings were sadly erratic. She'd cry one minute then laugh like a little bubbly girl the next. She'd talk about the time she was a gradeschooler, then she'd shift to giving out a graduation speech to a class who, she said is graduating that day. My cousin said there were times that my aunt would yell that there are robbers in the house, or there's a fire going on, or there are policemen around. The worst time was when there were just the two of them, my aunt and her older daughter, and it was already around 3am, and all the lights in the bedroom were out, and my aunt kept saying that my dead uncle is standing beside my cousin! It was creepy because my aunt was so makulit, saying that my uncle was indeed in the room. Not only did she claim dead uncles and grandfathers and other dead people in the room, but she also sometimes points to the corner of the room, saying that a headless man in a green (sometimes blue) outfit is standing there.

Whew! I am not very close to my aunt but seeing her like that breaks my heart. I also feel for my cousins who have to take care of her. They need all the strength and patience to keep up with taking care of someone in her situation. Makes me wonder how it would be like when I am already old and gray. Makes me remember to eat more healthily and make sure that I exercise regularly to ward off stroke, heart attacks and other diseases.