I know in the 40s the ALZ term first coined. But how long before it became part of our reality?
I know, like you, that many, did not live as long as they do now. But, I have seen historic photos of adult sized cradles, once kept in main room. How did they deal with incontinence? Bedsores? Difficulty in eating and swallowing? I can't put my hands right now on this article I have read in last year but there is some order of nuns, which when said sister could no longer eat, nothing was forced and the nun passed in prayer.
Was that better than hospice if they were in pain and struggling to breathe? I don't know.
What did they call this? Arteriosclerosis? Something else?
My great-grandfather I was told was senile.... an early word for later to be dementia.
My great-great-grandfather suffered a brain injury at the age of 35. His wife took care of him until she passed at 38 years old from complications when her dress caught fire while burning brush. This was back in 1874 and women use to wear those long heavy material type dresses. Her husband had to go live in a county asylum and the children went to live with relatives. He lived in the asylum for over 25 years. I cannot imagine he survived so long in such a place.
So I assume back in the 1800's and possibly the early 1900's, asylums were places where if one had dementia or could no longer care for themselves went to live. No wonder their children when they themselves become elderly refuse to want to move to a nursing home, thinking it's similar to what their parents went through.
As for not being able to swallow correctly, my Dad passed from aspiration pneumonia due to food/liquids going into the lungs, and thankfully he was on Hospice care. Otherwise he would be coughing to be point of not being able to catch his breath. I believe there is another word for failure to swallow but I can't remember it at this moment :P
Thank goodness for modern medicine.
I think that families took care of their own. Women getting the brunt of the load. Since people didn't travel and weren't as involved as we r now, they just worked the caring into their daily lives. With children doing their part. Maybe not with the caring but doing chores that the caregiver would do. And, they probably didn't live as long and no lifesaving measures were taken. The heart stopped, the heart stopped. When I graduated in 1967 the life expectancy was 65.