Tangles

Sorry. Been forever since I posted. Lots of work.

Apparently attempting Hemingway staccato sentences today.

I just wanted to take a minute to address the horror that is Alzheimer's.

I've been working with a client who has the late middle stage of the disease. It's pretty much the "Terrible Two's" of Alzheimer's. Lots of noise, most of it nonsensical.

My entire day is spent responding to queries such as, "Are we going down there to where the green moon is?" If this were a simple declaration I could simply ignore it and go about blogging on my laptop. Unfortunately, my client phrases these things as questions, so being the good guy that I am I attempt to answer them. I say, "I don't know" when and where I can. For those occasions where the questions are tinged with paranoia or about his still-alive mother who must be 124 years old, I respond with "uh.." and hope the question will extinguish itself with no more need of response on my end.

The thing is, no matter how often you answer a question or how you answer it, it will invariably be asked again within a few minutes. Pretty soon, you wonder if he's more batshit crazy for asking or you more for answering.

He likes to wander also, straight out of his own apartment and into other people's cars, apartments, and lives, so I have to be constantly vigilant, serving as the human equivalent as a lock on the cabinet door.

He'll get angry (and occasionally violent) at the most benign remarks and requests, too,

Anyway, take my word for it, Alzheimer's is a terrible disease that deserves to go the way of Polio and the dodo. Please visit http://www.alzfdn.org/ContributetoAFA/makeadonation.html  and give a few bucks if you can. Junk Coffee will send you a photo of your own Alhzeimer's patient and let you know how your contribution is making a difference in his or her life (okay, we won't :)