Dementia Australia's podcast Hold The Moment features people living with the disease and reminds others they're not alone.
Hosted by Hamish Macdonald and Jim Rogers
Hosted by Hamish Macdonald and Jim Rogers
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Welcome to Hold the Moment, a podcast from Dementia Australia about dealing with life after a diagnosis of dementia.
00:07I'm Hamish Macdonald and I'm hosting this show with my friend Jim. G'day. G'day Hamish. How are you? Nice to see you. I'm very well. Thank you.
00:16I'd had conversations with people or met people in my work and
00:21I couldn't recollect the meeting when they could.
00:26It was frustrating. The neurologist's office called, made an appointment and they did say to me,
00:32unfortunately, we can see that you have young onset Alzheimer's.
00:37It was almost an out-of-body experience. I just...
00:42It's as though time stood still for a moment.
00:46Dad was initially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and then Lewy body dementia. This whole experience has
00:53meant that I've had a more kind of intimate relationship with dad than what I would ever have expected because you sort of have
00:59to get to know parts of your parent, you know, and their life in a way that you would never anticipate.
01:04And even see them, you know, sobbing on a bed.
01:07You know, I try to approach it by thinking through, you know,
01:11how he might try and approach the situation if he was better able to make a decision.
01:14That's a lovely thing, I think, for you to try and look at it through his eyes.
01:19What would he want? I think an important thing is trying to reach in
01:24to your loved ones with dementia by using tools, by reading them stories from their past.
01:29Just enjoyable things you can do together. When you were first diagnosed, I know you spent a bit of time talking to your own brain.
01:36Is that right? Yep. What did you, what conversations did you have with your brain?
01:41Why did you do this? Why?
01:43What have I done?
01:45What has made you, you know, do this to me?
01:47You should give me like a bit of a warning.
01:50Yeah. But I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my,
01:57I call my active dying plan out of the way.
02:00And now I'm on my active living plan and my adventure with dementia.
02:14And I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my active dying plan out of the way.
02:19And now I'm on my active living plan and my adventure with dementia.
02:22And I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my active dying plan out of the way.
02:25And I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my active dying plan out of the way.
02:28And I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my active dying plan out of the way.
02:30And I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my active dying plan out of the way.
02:32And I'm very lucky because I was diagnosed early because that allowed me to do what I did to get my active dying plan out of the way.