NFL legend Michael Irvin has opened up about taking care of his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
In an interview with Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, Irvin shared how he’s taking care of his wife, Sandy, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s last year.
“With the support that she’s given me over the years… I’m 59, and we recognized some things were going wrong with her about ten years ago,” Irvin explained. “We thought it was menopause, you know, you go through it and start going to the doctor. Now, I’m coming off of burying my mother-in-law. My mom had Alzheimer’s. My mother-in-law was living with us ’cause she had Alzheimer’s, and we were taking care of her.”
Following a series of tests, the Hall of Famer discovered that Sandy had the early signs of Alzheimer’s
“A year and a half of testing, we find out it was early onset,” Irvin said. “We have been dealing with this for eight, nine years. … It’s quite hard to take care of someone 24 hours a day. I have to keep a 24-hour nurse with her all the time, and in these people now, you know, she’s angry, agitated at all times.
“She hit you, they take that nurse out, send another nurse, and they put more charges on. I mean, they running a bail up on me. But, if anybody has earned the right to be in her home? You know what I mean? And no matter what, she will be in her home. I just have to do i,t and it gets hard,” he continued.
Because he has a nurse come in on the weekends to assist his wife, he can continue his work as a popular sports commentator.
“I can come back and do what I got to do again,” Irvin said. “Playing football brought me out of the ghetto, now being around the game keeps me sober and gives me that lift so I can go do deal with everything else I need to deal with.”
Irvin and Sandy were married in 1990, after meeting at the University of Miami. They’ve been married for over 35 years and together for over 40.