My husband was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease at age 59 and I’m sharing what it means to be a full-time caregiver for someone with this cruel disease.

Here are 3 reasons I created a Caring Bridge online journal.

1. It gives me a shareable online space to document what’s going on with my husband’s disease so I am not telling the same story over and over to different people. I have my journal set to private/invitation only, for our friends and family.
   

2. While I have only used the journaling feature, there are tools you can use like setting up a meal train or fundraiser.
   

3. I don’t talk about my husband’s disease in front of him, so I can let people know how they can best help during different stages of our journey, so when we are around them, we don’t have to whisper or try to get away for a quick conversation.
   

I know my husband was worried about this disease for many years and I try to keep our outing looking as normal as possible, so if he is lucid at any moment, he won’t feel bad.

There’s a lot of pain in being a caregiver and losing my spouse of 37 years to this awful disease. So, I’m able to share that on Caring Bridge, privately, and be a little more open than I can in a public blog.

In keeping track of my husband this morning, I’ve lost this post through errors in editing 3 times so far!

I’m going to post it as is, and keep moving forward!

Thanks for coming alongside, even if we never meet.

Anne