DEMENTIA is sometimes called “the long goodbye”. This is because although the person is still alive, the brain-eating condition slowly chips away at their memories and the qualities that make them “them”. The disease affects about a million Brits and is the UK's top cause of death.
Hospice nurse, Julie McFadden, 41, is now sharing her insights on social media as to how dementia progresses and how people die of it. Posting her thoughts on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, Julie hopes to open up the conversation about death and dying. "When I talk about dementia I'm talking about all types of dementia, [including] Alzheimer's disease and even Parkinsons' disease," she said.
Each of these diseases affects the brain and leads to the loss of ability to think, remember, and reason to levels that affect daily life and activities. And although each condition will look slightly different, on the whole, they will follow a similar progression towards the end. "They all have a staircase decline," Julie said.
"This means they meet a plateau - their new normal - and then suddenly something happens, usually a fall or an infection like a UTI (urinary tract infection). "When this happens, their health will decline. And they will be down here [points at a lower level] at a new normal.
" At this point, the person with dementia is very unwell, which might leave family members or carers forced to consider putting them in a hospice . "And then, slowly but surely they usually creep back up,.
