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• I hope the only way anyone ever has to learn about this horrible disease is by reading a book. I'm sure this is a good one, but I'm caring for a father who has it and cannot read about it. Another good one, I've heard, is (non-fiction) "The Thirty Six Hour Day", about care-giving. There's one about an Armenian Father (named Mardik) and I heard his daughter speak. The cover showed her dad in color, in better times, smiling, and progressively dimmer ghost images of him receding into the distance. If that doesn't visually capture the essence of "The Long Good-bye", I don't know what does. (NT) -- Lemora, 14:02:27 11/09/09 Mon
  

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• I only wish that I had found this recommendation a year ago. My mom was diagnosed with a slow moving dementia, but had a fall, and then overnight she went from living on her own, to being late stage dementia. We lost her overnight to this disease. We were never able to say goodbye to her, and thought we would have time with her before the devastation set in. Right after her fall, she never knew who we were, where she was, or even who she was. Immediately after the fall she became total care in a nursing care facility. I wish we would have had the time to say what we needed to when we still could have reached her. Now we go every day to the nursing home to feed her, but she doesnt know us. This book will be extremely painful. I would like your opinion = Do you think it will help us at this point? (NT) -- Irene, 11:06:01 11/10/09 Tue
  • Oh, Irene, I'm so sorry about your mom. Went long... -- MaryJ, 09:31:10 11/11/09 Wed
    • PS Irene... -- MaryJ, 12:49:52 11/11/09 Wed
      • Thank you both for responding. It is very hard, and has changed my siblings and my world entirely, Working full time and being with mom every day at lunchtime for a few hours is proving to wear me down. I had to see a mental health professional as well for stress. I feel that we have already lost her, lost her on that day of her fall, and we have already started the grieving process, but cant follow through with the stages of grief, because she is still here. She would so hate this. She was always moving, always helping people and energetic. Now her whole world is her geri-chair and her bed. What a terrible existence. (NT) -- Irene, 09:17:14 11/13/09 Fri
        • This is the most eloquent way of putting the caregiver emotional limbo I've yet heard: Grieving, but unable to move through the process because the person is here, but not here. I find it has also affected my ability to process my mother's death of a year ago. I'm totally stuck in neutral. I've just accepted that this is how life is right now. (NT) -- Lemora, 15:21:53 11/14/09 Sat
  • MaryJ and Irene>>> -- Lemora, 13:33:48 11/11/09 Wed
    • Lemora... -- MaryJ, 14:16:20 11/11/09 Wed
  
  

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• Still Alice is a book which will stay in your thoughts, especially if you have a family member w/ALZ. I feel the early onset ALZ at a young age must be intensely devestating. There were some things I did not understand in the book close to the end, did her husband hide her Blackberry so she could not follow the plan? My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's last year. I have since moved in with her to stay for as long as she is able to live in her own home. It is a hard thing to watch. Kind of like sand sifting through your fingers and you can not stop the sand even if you close your hand.I would urge people to read this book. (NT) -- lochala, 18:41:10 11/29/09 Sun
  • ((((((lochala))))))))) My book club had quite a discussion about the plan (inside) -- MaryJ, 07:10:52 12/01/09 Tue
    • Thank you for the hugs, they are appreciated. I thought maybe she had lost her ability to understand the applications on her Blackberry. The most eduring statement by Alice which made me cry is ,.. When I can no longer enjoy or taste the ice cream, I will know it is time. My mom loves icherry vanilla ce cream. She says it comforts her in the wee hours of the morning. (NT) -- lochala, 16:41:58 12/10/09 Thu