I remember the day in early 1981 when my dad called me in Florida to tell me my mom -- who was only 54 at the time -- was apparently suffering from something called Alzheimer's disease.
When you say someone has cancer or heart disease, everyone understands what's going on. But in the early '80s, Alzheimer's wasn't part of the lexicon. I had never heard of it, and there was no Internet then, so I had to go to the public library to find out exactly what it was.Even after reading up on it, I really didn't understand what was going to happen to her.My mom had always been a little bit out of the ordinary. Her personality reminded me a little bit of Edith Bunker of All In The Family. She was a little bit naïve and prone to say and do silly things, like the time she was serving Sunday lunch and somehow spilled gravy on the ceiling!So when my dad told me mom had been acting unusual for a while, I had to ask what he meant.He first noticed something when she couldn't remember how to play bridge. Then, he said, she paid the mortgage seven times in six weeks. "And last week she got on a bus and rode to Bowie to see you."I've never lived in Bowie, although we used to visit his parents and hers, too, when they lived there years earlier.He was concerned, so he took her to see our family doctor, who gave her a simple test to see how her mind was functioning. Although she had been valedictorian of her high school class in Nocona, she couldn't perform the simplest math or remember who the president was or what day of the week it was.I flew home, and she picked me up at the airport. On the way home, she had a difficult time driving and several times tried to drive on the left side of the road, so I had her stop, and I drove the rest of the way.For the next 15 years, I got to witness firsthand the devastation that is Alzheimer's. And my dad acted as my mom's caregiver the entire time. He retired at 58 to take care of her, and there's no way she could have gotten better care if she had been surrounded 24 hours a day by a whole staff of doctors and nurses.And he never complained. Or if he did, I never heard it.At first, she was just very forgetful. She would tell you the same story over and over and over and over. She had a hard time with the TV -- she kept repeating under her breath, "This isn't real." At dinner, she couldn't figure out which drink was hers.Eventually, she stopped recognizing who we were, and she went through a bout of breast cancer and fell and broke her hip. She was confined to a bed and finally lost the ability to communicate. For the final six years of her life, she was bedridden and basically had no conscious existence at all. In the end, she contracted pneumonia and thankfully died.Watching all this happen, I can certainly see why some people see euthanasia as a humane option in circumstances like these. There was no hope of any quality of life for her, and the constant care my father was giving her was taking his life, too.My only aunt later died of complications from Alzheimer's, and my dad did, too, in 2003. He also suffered from Fahr's syndrome, another disease of the brain.Experts say that having close relatives who have died of Alzheimer's greatly increases your chances of having this awful disease, so every time I forget something -- which now that I've hit my 60s seems to happen more and more -- I wonder if there is a time bomb ticking in my head.Of course, they say forgetting where you put your car keys isn't an indicator of Alzheimer's. It's when you forget what the car keys are for that you should worry.They really haven't made much progress during the past 30 years in even knowing what causes the disease, much less finding a way to prevent or cure it. Symptoms don't show up until decades after the disease begins.The average person's chance of getting Alzheimer's doubles about every five years after 65. By 85, it's a 50-50 proposition. With my risk factors, it's more like 100 percent.Just another incentive to live every day like it's your last.To donate for Alzheimer's research, go to alz.org.Jim Witt is executive editor of the Star-Telegram817-390-7704@jimelvis on TwitterHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
