Author: Comer, Meryl
Call Number: LP 616.831 C732S 2015
Book Description from amazon.com:
When Meryl Comer’s husband Harvey Gralnick was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in 1996, she watched as the man who headed hematology and oncology research at the National Institutes of Health started to misplace important documents and forget clinical details that had once been cataloged encyclopedically in his mind. With harrowing honesty, she brings readers face to face with this devastating condition and its effects on its victims and those who care for them. Detailing the daily realities and overwhelming responsibilities of caregiving, Comer sheds intensive light on this national health crisis, using her personal experiences—the mistakes and the breakthroughs—to put a face to a misunderstood disease, while revealing the facts everyone needs to know.
Pragmatic and relentless, Meryl has dedicated herself to fighting Alzheimer’s and raising public awareness. “Nothing I do is really about me; it’s all about making sure no one ends up like me,” she writes. Deeply personal and illuminating, Slow Dancing With a Stranger offers insight and guidance for navigating Alzheimer’s challenges. It is also an urgent call to action for intensive research and a warning that we must prepare for the future, instead of being controlled by a disease and a healthcare system unable to fight it.
My Read:
Page 199-"If Harvey hadn't been in denial, we could have planned better financially on how to care for him. He could have written down his express wishes on how much care he wanted and when to stop."
We, the living, tend to take things for granted. We wake up in the morning, eat and dress for the day, Then after work we go home and mind our own business. Day in, day out, day after day. We didn't have time to plan or should I say we don't reserve time for ourselves. If we can save some time to communicate with ourselves we can be more mindful about our life: what's going on in my body, my mind, and those around us. Being mindful is to pay attention to what our body is telling.
Page-207-"Sometimes I took out old photo albums to remind myself of good times together, but Harvey's personality was no longer the same. He had none."
Page 227-"Can you have true intimacy with another human being without shared memories?"
Page 222-"Researchers tell me that as once-robust networks of nerve cells start to weaken and connections get lost, it gets harder to remember things and keep track of people, objects, and events. At this point, I assume that my hippocampus-a hub of 100 billion nerve cells deep in the brain that helps make and store memories-is too worn out to activate and encode new memories or ever grow new nerve cells again?"
Memory is who we are; there are happy memories, sad memories, events that made us cry and laugh, people we love and love us, beautiful scenes we had visited, even dreams we had dreamed. It's hard to imagine when our memories got lost. It got me wondered "Where am I?" "Who am I?" questions that scared me. It's a disease affecting everyone around.
It's a good read. The author is very brave, honest, and sincerely kind.
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