Caregivers: Alzheimer's Other Victims
June 30, 2009— -- When his mother Lawanda was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Blane Wilson swore he would not put her in a nursing home.
"It's like adopting another child," Georgia Wilson, Blane's wife, says about Lawanda, 78.
44 million Americans provide unpaid care to a loved one, according to a study by the by the National Allegiance for Care Giving and the AARP. Of those, 23 percent are providing care for someone with Alzheimer's, dementia or other forms of mental confusion, according to the same report.
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Blane Wilson says it's been rough dealing with a parent with a disease without obvious, physical symptoms.
"It's the type of disease you look at and don't see it," he said.
The situation at the Wilson's house is a powder keg poised to explode: a man, his wife and the mother-in-law who never goes home. The disease caused a host of problems for Wilson and his family. The stress of supervising Lawanda , who frequently and unwittingly puts herself in harm's way, strained the couple's five-week-old marriage.
"All I want is for her to go," said Wilson's wife, Georgia. "I just didn't expect to get this five weeks after we married, honey."
After four months of caring for his sick mother, in a teary confession to "Primetime" cameras, Wilson says: "I didn't expect all this ... It's my mother. You don't understand"
Neither do the millions of Americans who suddenly find themselves caring for a loved one.
A common thread links together most caregivers: the haunting memory of how their loved one used to be.
Click here to visite the Alzheimer's Association website.
