Need an argumentative essay on Alzheimer's Disease: Experiencing the Myths. Needs to be 4 pages. Please no plagiarism.Download file to see previous pages... Although medical research still could not p

Need an argumentative essay on Alzheimer's Disease: Experiencing the Myths. Needs to be 4 pages. Please no plagiarism.

Although medical research still could not provide a single and reliable cure, improvement is now realized in the management of clients with AD (Sorensen, 2009). In this paper, a case of AD is examined in details including a background information, symptoms, assessment, and prognosis. Background information Catherine, 76, started showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease at age 60 when she retired from her work as a clerk in small sales office. Her family reports that “she was rather a sickly child…” In fact, her medical records say that she had frequent bouts of pneumonia especially during winter. Although she did not have a good physical health, she was a chronic smoker. When she was younger, clinic visits had been a part of her monthly routine. Aside from this, she was hospitalized after having a heart attack, and was diagnosed of having Coronary Artery Disease with incomplete blockage in the anterior heart portion. At 57, she sustained a serious head injury after she fell down the office staircase. After she recovered from the injury, she was advised with activity limitations. She is an African- American, and her uncle on the maternal side was also diagnosed of AD at age 77. Symptoms The main presenting symptom for AD is frequent forgetfulness that resulted to gross negligence associated with unacceptable reasons (Alzheimer’s Association, 2011). The client noticed her being forgetfulness three years before she retired from her work. However, she attributed this decline in memory into aging and did not tell her doctor about it. Since she was advised with activity limitations, her social activities with her friends and associates were gradually reduced. Not until she forgot that she was cooking one night and left the stove open for hours, she was brought by her daughter to the hospital for a check- up. Memory. Having a fragile memory affected her work as a clerk. Although it is normal to occasionally forget an assignment, deadline, or colleague’s name, her frequent forgetfulness or unexplainable confusion at home or in the workplace signaled that something was wrong. There were also times that she was disoriented to time and place. One afternoon, she could not remember how she got into a park. Although it seemed familiar, the rapid transition of people in the park made her confused until she could not remember how to get home. Furthermore, she frequently forgot where she placed important household things like keys, knife, iron, and her favorite wristwatch. Until she found these things in unusual places at home like in the tool box, oven, or broom stand. Perception. People with AD eventually lose the ability to respond to their environment (Alzheimer’s Association, 2011). In this case, the client experienced trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships. While she has intact sensory function, she has difficulty recognizing or identifying objects. In the late stage of AD, the client was having visual hallucinations and delusions, meaning she was seeing things which are not there, and perceiving false ideas of reality. Language. Along with her difficulties of perception and memory, the client was observed to have inappropriate use of words and vocabulary, compromising her communication with other people.