Kotoko Osada (alias)

Age:

80 years old (As of December 2019 interview)

Year of birth:

1940

Place of residence:

Numada City, Gunma Prefecture

Relatives living together:

Lives in a single room in a nursing home for the elderly

Occupation:

Housewife

Age of diagnosis:

79 years old

Diagnosis:

Alzheimer type

Dementia rating scale?Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE)
The most widely used screening test internationally for identifying dementia, in which questions are asked directly to subjects. The MMSE assesses cognitive functions with a series of questions/tasks related to orientation, memory, attention and calculation, language, giving commands and copying a picture. The test yields the highest score of 30 points, and, in general, those who score 23 points or lower are identified as suspected patients with dementia.Revised Hasegawa's Dementia Scale (HDS-R)
A screening test widely used in Japan for identifying dementia, in which questions are asked directly to subjects. It has 9 questions/tasks related to age, orientation, immediate memory and delayed recall of 3 words, calculation, backward digit span, memory of 5 objects and language fluency. The test yields the highest score of 30 points, and, in general, those who score 20 points or lower are identified as suspected patients with dementia.
:

MMSE 20About (As of May 2018)

Past experiences

2017年(78)

May: when my husband was hospitalized, I looked for him at home and made phone calls to neighbors and my daughter's work place.
My daughter noticed something was wrong, and together we went to a hospital specializing in dementia, where I received a diagnosis of dementia.

2017年(78)

June: my application for long-term care insurance was approved, and I was certified as requiring Support Care level 2. A care manager visited me, and I gradually started to use long-term care services.

2017年(78)

July: my husband was emergently hospitalized due to his chronic illness, which resulted in (my) inability to take food and water. I was admitted to a long-term care health facility for the elderly. I left the facility once but was admitted to an affiliated hospital of the same facility in the following month due to dehydration and low nutrition. I recovered and returned to my home.

2018年(79)

Spring: I collapsed at home and was hospitalized. I strongly requested to return home and was soon discharged from the hospital, but then financial troubles with my neighbors occurred.

2018年(79)

My daughter, who was visiting me weekly, noticed that my husband and I were getting more and more injures. After learning that I had become jealous and violent toward my husband after he returned home from hospitalization, I decided to enter a facility.

2018年(79)

(I) was wishing to continue living at home, but my daughter decided that I enter a facility because of my living ability and the relationship with my neighbors. A week before admission, I became sick and started shaking, etc., so I went to the hospital immediately.

Joy in life and living

1

Joy that you have given up

Having tea and chatting with neighborhood friends

2

Joy that you have given up

Cooking (good at simmered dishes)

Something you would like to do in the future

As long as I am healthy, that is all that I need.

Challenges in daily living

Physical and mental dysfunctions

Message to the society

I would be happy if my husband lives long.
I will be able to take care of things at home when I return home.
I want to let him eat as much as he wants, and he can say what he wants if he is talking to me.
Home is a place where I can rest my mind, and I want us to live happily together without any inconvenience.