My grandmother turned into a cat

My grandmother turned into a cat.

This year, the four people who spent the Chinese New Year together were me, my wife and her Parents, and a cat. To be precise, I should call the cat Grandma, because she used to be my wife’s grandmother.

When we first arrived Home on New Year’s Eve, we saw her. The cat was sitting quietly in a chair, and when she heard the voice of the visitor, she looked up at us curiously. We all greeted her affectionately. A cat is a cat, she neither gets excited about visitors nor responds to human concerns. Cats have a world of their own, and when we didn’t bother her any further, the slight alarm in her eyes dropped.

While we watched TV and prepared lunch, the cat was asleep – snoozing peacefully in her chair, occasionally changing position quietly, completely unperturbed by the sounds of pots and pans and the show.

The people in this home are excitedly chatting, sharing the weather, housing prices and year-end bonuses, and another year has passed.

The cat in the chair occasionally open eyes to see, after all, these are not related to her.

2.

My wife and I have had cats for 7 years, so the matter of Grandma becoming a cat was immediately apparent to us.

All cats most of the Time is actually not as cheerful as the online video, the cat is a quiet presence, quiet enough to have no presence; and communication with the cat would have been a huge disconnect, so people in turn can be at ease with her to share a room without being uncomfortable.

When it was time to eat, the cat also had a bowl of her meal.

The wife’s mother came closer and tried to ask the cat, “Who do you think this is?

The cat looked at the middle-aged man being pointed at, looked around at us, and finally looked at the wife’s mother, without making a sound.

Then who do you think I am?

There was still no response, and the sound of dishes and laughter kicked off the New Year’s Eve. Cat sits in Grandma’s armchair wearing her red down jacket, with her wrinkles and white hair.

Cat is the grandmother who has Alzheimer’s disease.

3.

Grandma actually did not become a cat overnight.

In the early years, I would visit her every year at my old home. But it was always no more than half an hour each time – she was so deaf, but like many old people didn’t much care for hearing aids, and when we were with her, it was more like everyone was shouting rather than talking.

From about the time we met, things got strange. She began to have trouble telling what my wife’s father and I looked like. It wasn’t until later, when the Family had to struggle to explain that this is not your son-in-law, but your grandson-in-law, that Grandma reacted and said loudly, close to one’s ear: Oh – how he’s so fat!

I went to tease the birds she kept. Grandma sat back on the edge of the bed wordlessly amidst laughter, like a slightly confused cat.

And over the past two years, she gradually forgot what everyone looked like.

The family had seen a doctor for Granny. The original heart disease and High blood pressure in her body could be treated with medication, but the symptoms of dementia were difficult to reverse – indeed, I should have known that, after basically ruling out dementia of other natures, her cognitive impairment was already consistent with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

I hadn’t seen her in a long time. Even though I was familiar with the literature and textbooks, for me, who was not a neurologist, my intuitive impression of this kind of patient actually only remained in the “The Last Lesson” with the breezy Mr. Fan, and the one who made the sky and the earth, Su Daqiang.

Until this New Year’s Eve, I saw her completely transformed into a cat. She spent most of her time in an armchair because she couldn’t bear the weight of walking too much after her hip surgery; she didn’t answer the occasional words coming in her ears because her language center was no longer able to respond with sentences; and her prolonged indifference meant that her frontal lobe was falling into silence.

She could only sit quietly, looking at us, or closing her eyes.

There are no chickens flying and no stories happening, and this is the real Alzheimer: an old man, thus simultaneously limited in movement, lack of senses, impaired cognition, and emotional indifference, quietly sealed into the body of a cat.

4.

The wife’s father places the spoon in the grandmother’s hand. Next, the couple takes over the baton of close care of Grandma.

Grandma’s small bowl contains rice with Soup, small pieces of chicken, and fried soft vegetable leaves. Only, she knew to eat the Food in front of her only when the spoon was brought to her hand.

Grandma swallowed like a cat in small bites for a while, and then put down the bowl. From simple experience, even for this skinny 80-something year old, this meal was too little to consume – but her appetite had also aged along with her brain.

I cautioned that it was best to make a conscious effort to give Grandma more food, especially meat, eggs and legumes, or her body’s functions would decline prematurely and at an accelerated rate.

There was more fish in the small bowl, which was chopsticked and chewed slowly and obediently.

I suddenly had the funny illusion that I was telling a friend about cat ownership: Grandma’s temperature Perception is diminished, so she should avoid hot food; not only should she pick out the thorns of fish, but she should also core dates, because the elderly are more prone to intestinal perforation; she should also beware of anything that can easily get stuck or choked, because in addition to choking, aspiration pneumonia caused by choking may also be a hurdle that Alzheimer’s patients cannot overcome. ……

This is the most practical help my profession can give them. Although I know that they actually want to hear from me more than anything else, whether there is any hope for Grandma to get better.

At this moment, the last thing I want to do is explain that abnormal substances called beta amyloid are being deposited in Grandma’s brain every moment, that the memory palace called the hippocampus is collapsing, and that the connections that build personality are dying. And the damage, so far, is irreversible.

I’m just saying that she may gradually become unable to get out of bed, she may become incontinent, and her mind may become even more unstable than it is now.

Like a cat that is getting old.

There were no words, only the sound of water rushing in the sink.

5.

The TV show is a laughing mess, and the fireworks bloom outside the window, reminding people of the brilliant neurons in the special effects model.

My wife, who had just celebrated another “18th” birthday, turned to me and asked, “Can I get Alzheimer’s too?

I know that Alzheimer’s does have a genetic predisposition. At least five genetic loci have been identified, all of which may harbor the magic of turning people into cats.

“It could,” I said, looking at the family. “But many times, genetics is not determinative, and a healthy lifestyle even has the power to override genes. “

It’s not too hard, except that we have to start now, read and exercise more together, stay as far away from cigarettes and alcohol as possible in middle age, and then choke off the enemy of the three highs together as we get older.

And I know that right now, there are countless research teams around the world climbing the mountain of Alzheimer’s, hoping, as I do, to preserve those wonderful memories and protect countless ageless souls.

The special drug to stifle neurodegeneration, which is not yet available today, will surely be born in the coming decades.

“What if, in the end, I still turn out like Grandma? “

Then I’ll raise you as a cat.

“How cute would that be. “