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| Joe and I Valentines Day 2016 |
I’ve always
enjoyed interacting with young children.
There’s something fascinating about the freshness of their little minds,
uncluttered by conventions and bias. I love
their wide-eyed wonderment and innocence. A kind of purity of thought, unfiltered
and unobstructed, and free from the experiences that will later shape the lens
through which they view the world. Their
preciously short childhoods are the beginning of a long walk through life, and
so there’s good reason for us to say, “Enjoy them while they’re little”.
Human
development is defined as “the biological, psychological and emotional changes
that occur between birth and the end of adolescence; it’s the transition from
dependency to increased autonomy, a continuous process with a predictable yet
unique course for every human”.
As I read
this rather clinical definition of human development, I was struck by how
similar it was to a definition of dementia.
In fact, if I change just a few words I would have that definition.
“Dementia is
defined as the biological, psychological, and emotional changes that occur
between the onset of the disease and the end of the disease process; it’s the
transition from autonomy to increased dependency, a continuous process with a predictable
end, yet a unique course for every person”.
Okay, before
you stop reading this and fear you’ve just stumbled into a Psych 101 class, let
me tell you why I would choose to write about this.
Every so
often I find some truth about life that seems totally ironic to me. This is one of those truths…that the development
path of the human brain is very similar to the path of its destruction through
Alzheimer’s disease, experienced in reverse.
Several
years back a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was turned into the film,
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. It was a
romantic fantasy centered around a character (Benjamin) aging in reverse. By the end of the story he is chronologically
84 years of age, but has become physically a child. There’s a scene toward the end of the film where
a bewildered social worker stands over his crib and tells his love interest (Daisy)
that he’s displaying signs of dementia.
It’s hard to
wrap your mind around such a fantastic tale, but there are elements of the story
that sound a bit like Al should be showing up in the credits; the erasing of
abilities that Al does is like rewinding parts of your life back to where
you’ve already been, before you could do what you later did.
In the brief
moments when I can set aside my emotions about what Al is doing to Joe, I can look
at the disease process with some amount of fascination and marvel. It truly is incredible to consider that if
stored on paper the computed memories in the brain might literally fill a warehouse
(well, mine might only fill a U-Haul).
But if that’s the case, how could what has taken a lifetime to
accumulate be so easily disrupted, damaged and destroyed? How can Al be so efficient at bringing a
person back to their beginning?
It’s a
question I’m sure is perplexing for anyone dealing with Al and unfortunately,
there’s still much to be done before there’s an answer.
Today was
“doctor time”, a trip for Joe and Al to see the Neurologist. Joe’s doctor is a personable sort of fellow from
Minnesota, with a strong hand shake and friendly smile, the kind of guy you’d
want as a brother-in-law. But he has a
very small bag of tricks to deal with Al and he’s almost apologetic about it. He knows there isn’t anything he can offer us
that will change what’s happening. Maybe
he can help slow the effects of the disease for a while, but as he tells us that’s
about all we can expect. The rest is up
to us, well, really up to me.
My role is
to keep Joe as physically healthy as I can while providing a safe and
stimulating environment for him…. not an easy task.
I need to
get Joe out of his chair and keep him awake during the day, which will allow
him to sleep at night and keep him from wandering around the house. I may have to set off the smoke detector for
this one.
I can always
blend spinach into a breakfast smoothie to get him to eat vegetables or add
blueberries to his cereal. I might be
able to convince him that there is some nationwide ice cream shortage as an
excuse for not buying any. But keeping
Joe’s mind stimulated requires cunning and something other than endless hours
of watching television. Maybe strip Scrabble
could be the solution. Today it was
miniature golf without keeping score….whatever it takes.
