Carole Larkin's Page

My mom was among my first clients ( although I didn't charge her of course). I will tell you all the story in my next post. I have to go now. To be continued...

I was finishing up my Masters degree in Applied Gerontology at the University of North Texas, and had been working part-time and doing my internship at the Alzheimer's association of Dallas. From all that I learned there, I had the sinking feeling that my mom had a cognitive illness. The little signs started occurring that people usually ignore. Locking herself out of the apartment, some fender- benders, etc. Mom was living alone in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. My dad had died years before that. As she liked to say, "I swooped her up and brought her to Dallas to live. For the first 3 months or so, she was with me, but we both knew that arrangement was not appropriate on a long term basis. My mom is too outgoing and social to be isolated home alone while I worked. Because I had known all the communities in the Dallas area with memory care units I had pre-screened as you will, 3 appropriate communities that had quality care and management, the personality of the community that matched my mother's personality and was in the acceptable price range for her funds available for care. She chose her new home, not me. She saw the lobby and said " Honey, show me where my apartment is!" She was not anywhere near needing to be in the memory care unit. so over 3 years ago, she entered in the Assisted living area, and is still in that section today. She has progressed very slowly in the disease, due to the best doctor's in Dallas attending her ( I know who they are) and her enthusiasm for continuing to engage her mind and body, thus building her brain reserves, which can help her maintaina higher level of cognition longer. I give her all the credit, she accepted my guidance quickly and does whatever she can to help herself.

My goal is to make all my clients and their families experiences with these awful disease s as good as my mom's experience. An so far, I'm doing well at it, at least from their comments to me.