When I returned from my missions trip, I found my mother not quite herself at all, I knew something was wrong with her but I did not know what it was. During that time my father was diagnosed with Prostrate cancer and had to have surgery.One day when my mother went to visit my father as she was coming out from the hospital , she slipped and fractured one of her ankles, after that a myriad of things happened to my mother, she was never herself again.

My mother visited several doctors including a psychiatrist and no one could tell what was wrong with her. On my third visit to the psychiatrist, my mother displayed several different behaviors in his office that was when he began to do a battery of tests based on the information I had been collecting eventually she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and this is where my journey began.

Looking back I have come to realize that my mother was in the early stages of the disease long before she was diagnosed. By then I was the only child at home and guess what I became the caregiver, here I was dealing with my own issues and my plans get put on hold and suddenly I find myself all day dealing with my mother's problems and wondering when I was going to get my life back.

As time went by things began to get increasingly difficult and unpredictable, I did not know how the condition would progress so I began living one day at a time and made the most of it. I soon found out caregiving was hard work as it began to affect me emotionally, mentally, physically and socially. I suddenly found myself having to deal with anger and frustration and the other emotions that went along with them.The stress and the fatigue helped me to become depressed.

Crisis after crisis arose and soon I was letting myself go, not taking care of my need, eating a poor diet because I was not finding time to eat. Sleep deprivation became an issue. All of this was a recipe for sickness, and sick I did get.

One cannot begin to understand the exhaustion I experienced during this time, things reached a stage where something had to happen. I cried out to God and he stepped in and things began to change I was still the caregiver but I was now a happier caregiver, more alert in every way.It took seeing things from a different perspective tobegin to understand mother.

The most difficult day comes when your loved one no longer recognizes who you are.

Don't become discouraged if they seem afraid of you or treats you like a stranger,

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