And you are....?

While reading the headlines this morning, a particular article caught my attention, Breakthrough Discoveries: De-mystifying and attacking Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease causes changes or deterioration in parts of the brain that control communication, behavior and thinking, leaving it's victim forgetful, disoriented and unable to understand or perform basic tasks. There is little known about the causes of the disease, but scientist theorize it could be due to "gooey clusters" and "tangles of proteins" that form between nerve cells causing them to deteriorate. There may also be a link to diabetes.

The impacts of Alzheimer's disease hit close to home, as my Grandma was stricken by the disease in her later years. I first noticed she was struggling with memory loss while I was on a trip to Holland with both grandparents, and other family members. While Grandma generally seemed to be normal, she tended to frequently repeat herself. One example: she said to my aunt, "I like your hair. Where do you get it done?" My aunt replied, "Thank you. Joyce at the 7th East Salon cuts it." Not five minutes later she would ask again, "I like your hair. Where do you get it done?" This was a recurring theme on this trip, but at this point she still remebered who each of us were.

{I'll insert a really great picture here as soon as I find it}

A few years later Grandma's dimensia became much more obvious. One of the last times I saw Grandma was at a birthday party the family threw for her at her assisted living facility. I was dating Mr. G at the time and he had never met her. When we got to the party I saw Grandma sitting quietly in her wheelchair. We walked over to her and I excitedly called out, "Hi Grandma, it's Rebekah!" (It wasn't unusual to "remind" her who we were, since we all knew she didn't have the foggiest idea) I received no response. Not only did she not recognize me, but it was if I was not even talking to her. I didn't really know how to react to her response, so I just walked away a little baffled. Immediately Mr. G asked, "Aren't you going to introduce me?" Oh, how rude of me. So I turned around and said, "Grandma, this is my friend, Mr. G." We recevied the same response - none. I had to explain later to Mr. G that this was not my Grandma and certainly not how I wanted to remember her. The decline in her mental health had really shocked me.

I can recall my Grandma being involved in early medical studies on the disease. She was a test patient for developing medications. As the article suggests, medications today do not prevent the disease from spreading, they merely slow it down, which is basically what happened with my Grandma. Scientists are however, making progress on determining what causes Alzheimers and creating medications that help fight the factors involved. While it may not be this year, next year or even in five years, I do believe science will find a way to clear the fog in my lifetime.