November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month

November is Alzheimer's Awareness month.  Purple is the color for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is not easy to handle for anyone.  I have had family members that had the disease and I have worked in a Memory unit in a nursing home that had residents that had the disease.  It is a hard disease to understand.  Not one person has the same symptoms as another person that has the disease. There are 6 stages to the disease which can be hard to figure out which one a person is in.  This disease is hard because it takes the memories of the person then the person is unable to know who is family and who is not family.  So it can be really hard on the family.  Sometimes you will have individuals that know they are losing their memory.  I have seen family members make memory books for the individual so then continually look at it to remember and keep things fresh in their mind.  My advice is for the older people you know in your life, even if they do not have this disease---Spend time with them and remember everything they tell you. Don't regret the time you didn't get spend with your loved ones.