Thursday March 6th 2014 was World Book Day

Thought of sharing with you this book on that day

But I could only finish reading it day before yesterday

So here it is for you today

Voices of Alzheimer's

This was judged as the Best Consumer Health Book of 2007 by the Library Journal.

It's got a compilation of real life stories of people who have been thru the painful process of Alzheimer's amidst their kith and kin, friends and family and how they coped with this debilitating disease.

This book has been edited by The Healing Project and all proceeds from the sale of this book would be donated to them. They are a non-profit organization founded in 2005 to support those challenged with chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

I bought this book from The Book Depository who give free worldwide delivery.

This book offers us a lot to learn about Alzheimer's - its various stages, symptoms, therapy and palliative care and how we should treat every Alzheimer's case based on the individual's life experiences as every person has a different set of memories to relate to, and it will be a method of trial and error before we see what care plan is the most optimal for the patient. It will never be a case of one shoe that fits all....what will succeed is a person-centred approach, as a treatment that may work well for person A may not be at all working for person B even though both may be suffering from Alzheimer's. Why? Because both of them come from different backgrounds having different lifestyles and an entirely different set of memories related to their upbringing, family, career, relationships, jobs, environment, culture, society, etc.

I've gained some precious insights going thru this book. Hope it also inspires you to become a good carer or caregiver.

That's all I had to share for now.

Cheers
Aparna

Did I Do It?

Did I do it?

Yes, I did it.

So why didn't it
Register in my
Mind that I've
Done it?

Why did I again
Have to go and
Redo it?

I never did have
Such a muddled-up
Mind.

This hotchpotch
Surely, Dementia
Must have done it.


(This poem is very close to my heart as it has come to my mind after having read 2 superb books in the recent past. I recommend these books to anyone who would like to know more about Dementia and how uphill the struggle is for those afflicted with this debilitating condition and how hard their carers work to retain some normality in their fragile, fragmenting lives. Before reading these books, I used to think that Dementia always strikes old people which is true in most cases but I ended up reading some case studies of people in their early Forties.)

The Books are

1) Dementia Essentials - How to Guide a Loved One through Alzheimer's or Dementia and provide the Best Care - written by Jan Hall, published by Vermilion

2) And Still The Music Plays - Stories of People with Dementia - written by Graham Stokes, published by HPL

I bought both these books from Amazon - UK. These are also available on Amazon dot Com

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Copyright © Aparna Chatterjee 2013

uplifting quotations