Medical technology has advanced to the degree where life expectancy is longer than ever. Together with this blessing come the unique challenges that are an inevitable part of aging. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most frightening prospects facing the elderly population. Can it be prevented? Is there a cure? How does a family cope once it surfaces?
There are times when something you heard or read will make an impression that ends up changing the face of your life.
I had such an experience with the highly regarded novel Still Alice by Lisa Genova a fictional memoir of a woman diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In the book the author (who has a PhD in neuroscience) describes in vivid detail the earliest moments after Alzheimer’s peeks its ugly head into her life. An avid jogger she was jogging along her familiar daily route when suddenly she had no idea where she was. In retrospect she realized that moment heralded the beginning of the decline. This account transfixed me and I found myself contemplating the idea of becoming a stranger in one’s own life.
Shortly after finishing this book on my way to work I emerged from the commuter train looking for the familiar escalator that would take me to the subway. I couldn’t find it.
I had made this trip dozens of times — how was it possible to get lost? Breaking out in a cold sweat my thoughts rushed back to this book and that moment in the protagonist’s early morning jog. Familiar place yet lost. Was this my moment? The beginning of my Alzheimer’s journey? My heart was palpitating. I’m only fifty-one too young to see my life as I know it end. I raced back to where I had disembarked from the train still panicking mentally rewriting my future life as I ran. When I could not find the escalator I approached a train conductor.
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