What’s it like living with dementia and hearing loss?
My late father, Martin Avadian, lived with both hearing loss and dementia caused by Alzheimer’s.
Unbeknownst to us, living in California while he lived in Wisconsin, he drove down to the Chicago area to visit his brother, became disoriented, pulled over to the shoulder of the I-94 expressway, and began walking until the police picked him up.
Pause a moment to really IMAGINE what that’s like.
With each passing day, he was losing brain cells that helped him make sense of the world in order to function.
IMAGINE what it’s like to fear that your bank will forget you and your account. You have to visit, DAILY.
Additionally, he could not hear and often missed when the home-delivered meal delivery person rang the doorbell and even knocked on the door. Besides missing one nourishing meal each day, his hearing loss resulted in a lot of worry for the person making the deliveries that day. After all, he could have died in the house.
If the video does not display above, click here to view Martin Avadian’s Adventures with Dementia and Deafness on YouTube.
Thank YOU, National Parkinson Foundation of South Dakota for inviting me to speak at your annual conference in Sioux Falls. Thank YOU, Jake Iversen for shooting the video. And thank YOU Bonnie Keith for post-production.
