Oh my!

I did a real daffy thing yesterday. I have been thinking about what to post on my Friday blog post all week. Yesterday I went to Bible study - the first one for this year. There are some great women in my small group and I am totally looking forward to getting into God's word and to get to know new people. I have been away from church for the last couple of years during the really tough times. It was dumb, but I pulled away from a lot of things in my life as stress built up. I wrote a few weeks ago about coming back to church and coming home and I have to tell you it still feels amazing.

Anyway, I digress. After Bible study the kitty cat and I took a cat nap because last weekend in Wyoming wore me out - more to come on that next week. When I got up I worked on some things for the upcoming Memory Walk and as I did I thought about my blog post. But, when I was done I just turned off my computer and went to bed with my book.  Yes, totally true story, just went to bed and didn't think of it until the wee hours of the morning.

So, sorry for not being prompt with my post. I have been trying very hard to work on the whole meeting writerly deadline thing and getting my blog posts done three days a week are something I am using to instill meeting a deadline in my brain!

I do want to tell you about the book I was reading. It is called Still Alice and is written by Lisa Genova. Alice is a Harvard professor in her 50's when she begins to forget things. Then she misses her period and thinks that maybe the whole thing is menopause. When her period returns and one day she finds herself  in the middle of Harvard Square and not knowing where she is, she decides it's time to see her doctor. After a series of tests and extensive medical history Alice is diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease and her life changes.

This fiction story does a great job of bringing to light early onset dementia. Everyone thinks dementia is an old person's disease, but it is being seen in younger and younger people all the time.

I thought the book had a good message and did a good job of presenting Alzheimer's in a way that allows the reader to get a feel for what it is like to have dementia. Lisa tackles all of the aspects of dementia that complicate not only the patient's life, but also their family. I believe it was Nancy Reagan who once said that Alzheimer's is the long good-bye. So true that is. Little by little the person with dementia slips away and each day the loved ones have to learn to live with the changes.

While I felt this book was good at explaining the disease and portraying the symptoms, I was disappointed with the writing in the book. At times it was somewhat convoluted. Some of the conversations werehard to follow. And, I felt the book ended very abruptly without really wrapping up the story. It just kind of stopped. Despite these drawbacks I do recommend reading this book if you are interested in learning more about dementia.