COPING WITH ALZHEIMER’S
EVERY time I forget a name or find myself searching for a pair of glasses that are actually perched on the top of my head, my children shake their heads at me and say: ‘Never mind, Mum, it’s just early-onset Alzheimer’s.’
I smile weakly; little do they know that it’s a joke that becomes less funny as you get older. A recent survey said many people are more scared of developing dementia than cancer.
That has something to do with the fact that we’re far better educated these days about cancer than we used to be; we owe it to ourselves to find out more about the reality of Alzheimer’s.
One of the best novels on the subject is Still Alice by Lisa Genova, a U.S. neuroscientist. The Alice of the title (Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her screen portrayal) is a linguistics professor who develops early onset dementia.
It’s at times harrowing — sparing us none of the indignities of her condition, but it’s also clear-eyed account of the impact this disease can have on the sufferer and their loved ones.
Alice’s use of technology is particularly insightful — she records useful reminder videos to her disintegrating self — and it’s by far the best thing I have read on how a family has to readjust, practically and emotionally, to cope.
Coming at the subject from a different angle is Elizabeth Is Missing by Catherine Healey. Maud is a 90-something with severe short-term memory problems, but, like many with degenerative brain disease, she has no problem remembering events from many years ago.
Maud writes herself a note to say Elizabeth is missing, but then can’t remember who Elizabeth is or why she thinks Elizabeth has disappeared. The answer lies deep in her memory.
Turn Of Mind by Alice LaPlante is a more conventional thriller. Set in Chicago, it starts when Amanda is found murdered, with four fingers removed. Jennifer, a brilliant hand surgeon, is a suspect, but she can’t even remember her friend is dead, let alone whether she killed her.
She won the Wellcome prize for writing about medicine: the judges said it ‘emphatically confirms the ability of literature to tell us more about the heart and soul of an illness than any textbook’. Of all of these, it reminds the reader that sufferers are still valuable, and deserve empathy as well as compassion.