Now double, triple or quadruple the number of family members affected by it.
I think it is like 5.5 million people suffering from it. I think of it as a family disease and, I think, it effects every single person. They are the ones who will need to be in discussions with their parents and grandparents as to what the future will look like. That’s why part of the outreach program is to reach young people as well. I’m going to make an appointment but I just haven’t.” When a family member steps in and says, “This is becoming unwieldy,” sometimes you can’t not face it anymore. I think that’s probably true because we tend to dismiss the behavior as forgetful, or busy, or, “Oh, it’s nothing. I have discussed this with my doctor and she has said that very few people self-diagnose, it is usually a family member that recognizes a problem. It’s not for me to say what is normal and not normal, but the doctor will. But to do it repeatedly, to forget in minutes where you just put them, or to see notes to remember literally around your house: Claudia is my daughter, or I have three grandchildren, that’s not normal. You might have a lot of input in your life. Everybody misplaces their keys several times a day. Me appearing on different shows, but, specifically, there is a website, and they talk about the different symptoms.įor instance, where did you put your keys? That’s not news. Just by saying, “Be aware.” Raising the bar.
Notes to Remember was created to make people aware of the early signs of Alzheimer’s but how does it work? If you can be a part of directing how things are done, it alleviates a pretty big emotional burden for your kids. Caring for my mom is an absolute joy, but there is an emotional burden in trying to do things the way that mom would want them done. I look at it because of what we experienced with my mother. But unless you are prepared to face the news, you can’t begin to make any of those decisions for yourself. I think we brush it under the carpet until lives become unmanageable.Įarly diagnosis gives you time to decide whether you will get in-home care, move into a facility, or any one of several other choices. I think very often they do exist in denial. People may not be able to distinguish between what they are forgetting and what’s going on with them, and whether or not it is a normal process of aging. This is not news that you want, so it is scary. I would say recognizing the signs and the symptoms is scary. I wish I was as smart as my doctor on Code Black to say if it was difficult or not.
Is it because people are in denial or is it difficult to get a diagnosis? So it was several years after some of those incidents with me that she ended up being diagnosed. I am sure there’s a myth out there that when it hits you, it hits all at once, but the fact of it being neurologically degenerative and a gradual process was something I only experienced. I wasn’t aware of what early signs and symptoms would be. I have to say at the time, I didn’t know a lot about it I hadn’t studied much about it. She was having trouble remembering things that she was told or doing very shortly after she was told or was doing them. I realized watching her, she wanted to put it in her purse but she wouldn’t remember where she put it three or four minutes later. She was adamant that I was not to take it. She specifically forgot on an airplane where she put her passport. We were traveling together and she kept forgetting certain details of the travel. Initially, it didn’t raise any alarms because we are all aging, we live in a busy world, there are a lot details going on and she was entering into my family, it was an unfamiliar world - people and kids and whatnot - so it didn’t strike me as anything outside of the norm. My mother first began to forget numbers and calendar dates and needed to be told things several times. When did you first notice your mother was having difficulties with her memory? You have a personal connection to Alzheimer’s. Marcia Gay Harden and mom Beverly Harden (Marcia Gay Harden)