What Alzheimer’s Feels Like from the Inside (+Video)
An investigative reporter chronicles the progression of his own disease.
Greg O'Brien | December 10, 2015
I was up again at 4 a.m. the other night, one of five nocturnal ramblings in the early morning, the new me. No sleep. Picking my way in the dark, familiar territory of a home on Cape Cod where I have lived with my family for 34 years.
I fumbled into the bathroom as I felt the numbness creep up the back of my neck like a penetrating fog, slowly inching to the front of my mind. It was as if a light in my brain had been shut off. I was overcome by the darkness of not knowing where I was and who I was. So I reached for my cellphone that substitutes as a flashlight, and called the house. My wife, deep asleep in our bed just 20 feet away, rose like Lazarus from the grave to grab the phone in angst, fearing a car crash with one of the kids or the death of an extended family member.
It was me, just me. I was lost in the bathroom. [...]
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| April 2015. Source: http://reflexions.ulg.ac.be/upload/docs/image/png/2015-04/ictus_alz_global_analysis.png |
<more at http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/what-alzheimers-feels-like-from-the-inside?utm_source=frontpage&utm_medium=mview&utm_campaign=what-alzheimers-feels-like-from-the-inside; http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/16/alzheimers-research-molecule-delay-onset-dementia-found (Alzheimer's researchers find molecule that delays onset of disease. Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified a crucial molecule that could put the brakes on the damage to the brain. February 16, 2015) and http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/01/curcumin%E2%80%99s-ability-to-fight-alzheimer-studied/ (Curcumin’s ability to fight Alzheimer’s studied. January 8, 2015)>
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