My grandfather had Alzheimer's. My grandmother dementia. My grandfather would, not uncommonly, escape from his care home. He'd be found, miles away, trying to

My grandfather had Alzheimer's. My grandmother dementia. My grandfather would, not uncommonly, escape from his care home. He'd be found, miles away, trying to "walk back home" -- and, despite his deterioration, he knew the routes, he was walking the right city streets to get to the right country roads, etc... He wanted to "get home" and make sure his garden was being tended to. Sometimes he'd have shit himself, or pissed himself, but had been walking for hours regardless. That isn't a painless existence. Through what I know of his experience alone, I've understood this to be deeply traumatic. And my grandmothers experience was something else entirely. I believe I've commented on it here before, but her experience was also uniquely horrific. Bed-ridden, gangrene, do-not-resuscitate orders that were not acknowledged... I am terrified of what they went through. Personally, I feel that our notions of "pain" don't really get even approximately close to what these patients endure.