Lindsay Bongard-Batori on losing her mom Barbara to Alzheimer's

Your Complex Brain

Lindsay's mother Barbara had Alzheimer's disease. Lindsay, her brothers, and her father noticed changes in her mid-sixties. They started noticing her repeating herself and she stopped coming to the pool with them when they went to visit her and their dad in Florida. She also forgot where she parked her car and had to ask for help. Her memory was not what it used to be and she started to withdraw from social events.
Lindsay and her brothers decided they needed to talk to her doctor about these memory issues. They decided as a family that it was time to look into homes for her. They did not want to wait until it was an emergency and they had to put her into a home. They found a home that was dedicated to people with dementia and they were able to get her a room there. It was a very hard decision for Lindsay and her family. They had to depend on each other to take care of her.
Lindsay visited her every day and she felt like she was doing this for herself as well. It was very hard for Lindsay to see her mother like this. She missed being able to call her and tell her about her life. She wished her mother could see her kids grow up and experience life without her.

The Your Complex Brain production team is Heather Sherman, Jessica Schmidt, Dr. Amy Ma, Kim Perry, Sara Yuan, Meagan Anderi, Liz Chapman, and Lorna Gilfedder.
The Krembil Brain Institute, part of University Health Network, in Toronto, is home to one of the world's largest and most comprehensive teams of physicians and scientists uniquely working hand-in-hand to prevent and confront problems of the brain and spine, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, epilepsy, stroke, spinal cord injury, chronic pain, brain cancer or concussion, in their lifetime. Through state-of-the-art patient care and advanced research, we are working relentlessly toward finding new treatments and cures.
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