Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992 TAG: 9202210095
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
INDEPENDENCE LOST
She takes 10 deep breaths before entering her mother's room at Heritage Hall nursing home. She has to get herself psyched."Will she know who I am today?" Linda Keciorius wonders. "Will she be able to talk to me?"
This is the silent, personal struggle Keciorius has every time she visits her mother, Helen Horton, 75, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years ago.
"Sometimes," Keciorius says, "I have to make myself go to visit her. It's so hard to see a loved one in this state.
"It would be easier if it weren't my mother."
Helen Horton is among more than 3 million Americans who have this disease, a progressive, irreversible neurological disorder. Symptoms include gradual memory loss, impaired judgment, disorientation, personality change, difficulty in learning and loss of language skills.
No cause or cure is known.
Most Alzheimer patients are over 65, but the disease can strike people in their 40s or 50s. And it causes more than 150,000 deaths a year.
A workshop on Monday called "Alzheimer's Disease and Its Effects on the Family" will explore new treatments, the changing roles of families, starting a support group and considering nursing home placement.
The workshop costs $10 and is sponsored by the New River Valley Community Services Board and Montgomery Regional Hospital. It will be in the hospital's fourth-floor classrooms, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Registra- On the cover: Portrait of Linda Keciorius and Helen Horton by staff photographer Alan Kim. tion can be made by calling 382-8835.
"A wide spectrum of information will be covered," said Stel Saari, workshop coordinator. "The focus is to further support for the care givers of Alzheimer patients.
"Helping someone with Alzheimer's requires a lot of adjustment and support," she added, "especially for family members - no matter what their age."
Helen Horton came to Blacksburg from Buffalo, N.Y., more than a decade ago. Her memory was failing, her attention span waned and life was vague. Keciorius, the youngest of Horton's three children, decided to bring her here so she could keep tabs on her.
"Our roles reversed when she got here," Keciorius said. "I became her mother."
Then Horton was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
In the beginning, she had an apartment at Warm Hearth Retirement Village. She was an independent woman and did not want to burden her children. Keciorius ran her errands and made sure she got to her doctor appointments.
But Horton's disease worsened. She would forget to eat and was losing weight.
She was moved into the Showalter Center at Warm Hearth, where she received daily care, but her condition went downhill rapidly, her daughter said.
Warm Hearth employees found her wandering the lobby in the mornings looking for coffee.
"Maybe she thought she was back in her office," Keciorius said. "But that was 30 years ago.
"I don't really know where she thought she was."
Painfully, Keciorius had to make a decision to bring her mother home or place her in a nursing home.
"I couldn't even entertain the thought of bringing her home," said Keciorius, who has a young daughter and a health problem of her own. "I couldn't handle all of that at once."
And her mother was developing other problems that needed professional attention.
"To me, there are people better able to deal with her than me."
And so she was moved to Heritage Hall, where a specially designed wing called The Grove opened last year for Alzheimer patients.
Keciorius visits her mother as often as she can.
"She has blossomed there," Keciorius said. "She laughs now."
Not everyone decides to put a parent or loved one in a nursing home. Blacksburg resident Becky Cottingham, for instance, has kept her mother at home for almost two years.
"It was real natural for her to come here," Cottingham said. "When the time came, we knew she was supposed to be with us."
Although "Granny" has not been officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she does have similar symptoms that have gotten worse over the past five years.
"It doesn't matter what we call it," said Cottingham, who brought her mother here from West Virginia. "I mean, after a certain point, does it really matter what you call it?"
Granny, 82, remembers only a few things, such as her name and birthday. And she doesn't really know who the Cottinghams are.
"She knows I'm a nice lady and that I'm Becky, but I don't think she knows that Becky is her daughter," Cottingham said.
"It's frustrating for her. She seems to know that she can't remember things. And for us it's just real sad."
But Granny is really easy to manage, said her daughter, who hired a weekly sitter while she works. And a neighbor will stay with Granny if the family has plans for the evening.
"She doesn't wander, but she'll focus on certain things and then ask the same questions over and over," Cottingham said. "It requires a lot of patience."
Cottingham feels blessed that her family has it so easy with Granny. She knows it could be worse. And if Granny's condition deteriorates, placing her in a nursing home is an option.
"If she became a management problem or was endangering herself, we would have to consider it," Cottingham said.
Workshop coordinator Saari, who is also an an outpatient counselor for the Community Services Board and a geriatric specialist, said the decision on a nursing home probably is the most difficult one facing families of Alzheimer patients.
"Families have to consider their personal resources and finances, their young children and their own mental health," she said. "There is so much that goes into making this decision."
She is hoping a support group can be established through this workshop to help the care givers of Alzheimer patients.
Currently, there is only one such support group operating in the New River Valley. The Alzheimer's Disease Support Group meets the third Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at Valley Counseling Services, 7348 Peppers Ferry Road in Radford.
Group coordinator Judy Willoughby, who runs Valley Counseling Services, said the group has half a dozen regular members and many more on a mailing list. The group has been meeting for about five years and, generally, thinks the lack of adult day care and insurance coverage are the biggest problems.
"[The members] feel that they could have kept their loved ones home longer with more support," said Willoughby, who can be reached at 731-0838.
Another support group meets monthly in Roanoke, but Saari said one should exist in the Blacksburg and Christiansburg area.
"It's very easy in a situation that's so highly stressful . . . to be isolated yourself and to feel isolated," she said. "The variable that makes a difference is having support from people in the same situation."
Keciorius, 42, said she could really benefit from a support group. She has had a difficult time dealing with her mother's illness and she's not so sure that all of her decisions have been the right ones.
"I hate what nursing homes represent," she said last week. "It means a person can't take care of themselves anymore and they're in this institution now where they will end up dying."
Keciorius did attend a support meeting for residents' families at Heritage Hall, though it was not for family members of those with Alzheimer's.
She was able to let go of some tension by crying and discussing her fears with other attendees. But she thinks a support group dealing specifically with Alzheimer's would be better.
"It's so sad to see them revert to being an infant," she said of the disease. "And grown adults drooling on themselves are not as cute as an infant."