I'm terribly sorry I've been a horribly tardy blogger. Its been a bit of a challenging two months which haven't left me much time to continue the digging to China (or the Health Ministry, whichever comes first) that I meant to do. I hope to be able to update soon but in the meanwhile I wanted to spread the news about this amazing book that my father gave me. We discovered it fairly recently, but its been out for a while and the author, Lisa Genova has recently released a new book I haven't read yet. The name is 'Still Alice' and it really gives such poignant insight into what it feels like to have Alzheimer's Disease from the inside looking out.
Just to give you a quick synopsis (no spoilers I promise), the story revolves around the life of Alice Howland, a 50-year-old cognitive psychology professor at Harvard who's life work has focused on linguistics. The book begins when she starts having the insidious symptoms of dementia. She learns that she in fact has early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, (more specifically for all those keener neuroscientists out that, she has an amyloid precursor protein mutation) and the book depicts not only the continued symptoms but also how Alice has to grapple with the relationships in her life and just her daily living in general. Reading it, the book really seemed to ring true for me in its depictions of the symptoms, the medical options, the support systems available etc. In the case of Alice, she finds out almost immediately that she has Alzheimer's and more definitely that it is familial Alzheimer's disease. This is often not the case for most people and it can be an arduous journey getting to a diagnosis that to this day is still not definitive until post-mortem. But outside of this, I had no quarrels with the book.
Here's a particularly heartrending excerpt that has stayed with me ever since I read it. When Alice's daughter asks her what it feels like to have Alzheimer's Disease, this is her response:
"I know what I'm looking for, my brain just can't get to it. Its like if you decided you wanted that glass of water, only your hand won't pick it up. You ask it nicely, you threaten it, but it just won't budge. You might finally get it to move, but then you grab the saltshaker instead, or you knock the glass and spill the water all over the table. Or by the time you get your hand to hold the glass and bring it to your lips, the itch in your throat has cleared, and you don't need a drink anymore. The moment of need has passed."
-pg 162, Still Alice. Genova, Lisa.
Just to give you a quick synopsis (no spoilers I promise), the story revolves around the life of Alice Howland, a 50-year-old cognitive psychology professor at Harvard who's life work has focused on linguistics. The book begins when she starts having the insidious symptoms of dementia. She learns that she in fact has early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, (more specifically for all those keener neuroscientists out that, she has an amyloid precursor protein mutation) and the book depicts not only the continued symptoms but also how Alice has to grapple with the relationships in her life and just her daily living in general. Reading it, the book really seemed to ring true for me in its depictions of the symptoms, the medical options, the support systems available etc. In the case of Alice, she finds out almost immediately that she has Alzheimer's and more definitely that it is familial Alzheimer's disease. This is often not the case for most people and it can be an arduous journey getting to a diagnosis that to this day is still not definitive until post-mortem. But outside of this, I had no quarrels with the book.
Here's a particularly heartrending excerpt that has stayed with me ever since I read it. When Alice's daughter asks her what it feels like to have Alzheimer's Disease, this is her response:
"I know what I'm looking for, my brain just can't get to it. Its like if you decided you wanted that glass of water, only your hand won't pick it up. You ask it nicely, you threaten it, but it just won't budge. You might finally get it to move, but then you grab the saltshaker instead, or you knock the glass and spill the water all over the table. Or by the time you get your hand to hold the glass and bring it to your lips, the itch in your throat has cleared, and you don't need a drink anymore. The moment of need has passed."
-pg 162, Still Alice. Genova, Lisa.
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