Posted on 08/23/2011 1:56:31 PM PDT by libstripper
For such a strong figure, Pat Summitt was feeling almost helpless.
Months of erratic behavior had left the Tennessee women’s basketball coach bewildered, scared and asking herself “What’s wrong with me?”
Summitt went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in May. She underwent a series of tests and received a stunning answer. The diagnosis was early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.
(Excerpt) Read more at govolsxtra.com ...
How sad. As a long term care specialist I’m often in the unenviable position of having to explain to folks that they are uninsurable due to {fill in the blank}.
If there are any freepers out there reading this article, who are considering LTC insurance let me know and I’ll try to put you in touch with a specialist in your area!
This is terrible news. I hate it for Coach Summitt and her family. I also hate it for U.T. and women’s basketball in general. She’s the best.
This Tennessee fan will remember her in prayer.
When we brought her home from hosp with the broken hip the PT came to our house. One day we each held onto one side and walked her outside...between us. We put her back in her hosp bed and the PT left. I got on the computer and about 15 mins later I heard, "I'm ready to go home now." I looked up and my mother was standing in the doorway...had climbed out of the bed with the sides up! How she did it without breaking something I don't know...but it was funny. She did and said a lot of funny things.
One of my favorite coaches. Terrible news. May God bless her and may she find comfort in Him.
My grandmother died of this, July ‘09. Prayers to all who struggle and their family members who are doing the best they can.
Nicely put. I’ve been a fan of hers since I was a child.
Just D@MN!
Your post has made me cry and I don’t EVER cry!
I am very, very sorry for your loss! 8(
Alzheimers may be the cruelest disease out there. Early onset even worse. Hard to imagine anyone that young, tho a friend’s mother was in a home for years before her 69th birthday, suffering this vile disease.
God bless and care for Ms. Summitt and her family through what will be one debilitating time ahead for all of them. They surely have my prayers.
My mother in law has advanced dementia and it is worse than anyone can imagine. She has no idea where she is or what she is doing. She is just existing. There is no cure. If you do not die of some other disease first it eventually will kill you.
It has been three years and the loss was at the end of a very full life for them both. It was tough as they went through the last few years.
Putting the loss felt at death aside, they lived 90 years, were married for 63 years after being engaged for four during WWII. They lived independently until just six months prior to my dad’s stroke and in their own home that they had for the prior 45 years. The visited friends, played cards with buddies, and had best freinds that were their age who they had known since childhood.
I learned that death, even difficult, was part of our life. My dad after his massive stroke could do a few things. He could watch TV our the bird feeders from bed and read his newspaper when placed in a wheel chair. He reached for the paper with his one mobile arm and feel out of his chair and busted his face on the tile floor. He went to the emergency room and got stiched up. About four weeks later he did it again. The nursing supervisor asked him what he was trying to say as they loaded him on a gurney. He stuggled out a few words one at a time: Got. To. Get. Softer. Floors.
My Lord I pray to live that well.
Prayers up for Pat and her family.
My mother in law passed away at 95 in late may and would have been thunderstruk by this announcement.
At about 80 or so she became a rabid Lady Vols fan and a serious Pat Summit fan. On game day, she dressed from socks to hat in her orange and white lady vols regalia. To have her hero struck down would have been a serious blow.
She asked to be buried in her orange and white and pale blue
Although a Tennessean, I’m not a basketball fan, and am still horrified by this announcement and the frightful tragedy that’s befallen Pat and her family.
This Gator gives his condolences to Coach Summitt’s family, friends and to all of Vol Nation.
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