Charting a life with Alzheimer’s disease

In a segment aired on a recent episode of “60 Minutes,” Mike and Carol Daly continued to share details of their life in the decade since Carol was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Since that diagnosis, the couple has been interviewed every year or so over the last 10 years. Chronicling the couple’s journey was a way of showing the devastating impact of the disease.

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In 2008, Carol was still active, aware, and determined to make the best of her life. (Early on, CBS told the couple about the Music & Memory program, which works with people with dementia to create personalized music playlists.) In the intervening years, however, the progressive loss of mental acuity forced Carol to stop reading and watching movies. Within 3 years, she had lost the ability to gauge the passage of time. When CBS News chief medical correspondent Jon LaPook, MD, asked Carol her age, she pegged it at 80 years. Her actual age was 67.

By then, Mike, a former New York City police officer, had become her go-to for dressing and makeup. “She had a job. She cleaned house. She did the wash. She made the beds and she put up with me. Now I do the wash. I make the beds. I help Carol,” Mike said at the time.

Is this what he had signed up for in his life? “Yes,” Mike emphatically said. “When we took our [vows], it was for better or for worse. So I did sign up for it in the beginning.”

After 2 more years, Carol had forgotten that she was married and the identity of the husband sitting next to her, and was losing functional control of her body. An additional 2 years and Mike had hired a home care aide to the tune of nearly $40,000 annually. The mental and physical burden had become a financial burden.

Now, Carol spends her days in silence. She is unable to understand the world around her. “We can’t communicate; it’s lonely,” Mike said. Yet, until very recently, she remained home under the watchful care of her husband. Still, at that point, she still reacted to music that she once enjoyed.

Mike’s resolve to be Carol’s guide through life has been severely tested by the ongoing ordeal. In fact, Mike, who has put on weight and started taking medicine for anxiety, confided that he had considered suicide.

Carol declined to a point that she now lives in a nursing home. “I love Carol who was Carol,” Mike said. “But now Carol’s not Carol anymore.”

Click here to watch the “60 Minutes” segment.