Hello everyone, my name is Zheng Maria and today I am going to talk about the book called Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It is a very interesting book that fully describes a life of a woman that has an early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Here is some background information on Alzheimer disease for clarification. Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging. The greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older. But Alzheimer's is not just a disease of old age. Approximately 200,000 Americans under the age of 65 have younger-onset Alzheimer's disease (also known as early-onset Alzheimer's). Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer's, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. On average, a person with Alzheimer's lives four to eight years after diagnosis, but can live as long as 20 years, depending on other factors. The woman's name is Alice Howard, she is the main character and she is a professor of Psychology at Harvard University. In the book we read and watch how her disease progresses and the way she acts about it. Some of the moments that really touched me were -
1. When I found out that Alice's kids have a 50/50 chance of getting the disease.
2. When she got lost in Harvard Yard for the first time.
3. When she got a "long-term rest" from her job as a professor at Harvard.
I think it is really hard to live like that and see what the disease does to you or your loved ones. When they stop remembering your phone number. Then your birthday. Then you. Then themselves.
I think that we should be kinder to people with diseases like Alzheimer's, dementia, amnesia, confusion, etc. Life goes really hard on them. It is ok if they don't remember your name after you said for the 5th time. It is ok that they might forget ever talking to you. I don't know if I will ever be able to relate, but I will always try and talk about these problems in my articles. Maybe, somebody will see it.