This blog has a goal of promoting Alzheimer’s Awareness and highlighting the role of caregiver by exploring the balance of work/family/private life activities during the caregiving years.
My #DearAlz posts are about how much Alzheimer's has taken from my family. I welcome anyone to use this to post open letters of their own. Spread the word. Alzheimer's is a horrific disease and we have no idea what causes it, how to slow it, or how to stop it. Simply put, it's a death sentence.
#DearAlz is a way to tell the world how angry and frustrating this disease is for an entire family. Below is my first Dear Alzheimer's letter. Writing this after a particularly frustrating day of caregiving with my Father, it gave me some small outlet and relief.
There are thousands of caregivers out there just like myself and thousands more heading in this direction. Those of us already in the depths of dealing with this disease should readily recognize why I wrote this open letter to this horrific disease. It's helping me remember that it's not the person in front of me that is causing my frustration, but the disease itself, and it's what helps keep my slim grasp on sanity many days. Read these letters in the spirit for which they're intended. A release of emotion and a way to spread awareness.
Remember, only with funding and research can science find a cause and an eventual cure. We've done it with so many diseases, I know we can do it for Alzheimer's.
With that, I give you.....
Dear Alzheimer's,
I hate you. With all by being I hate you. Everyone you touch withers and dies. And the rot spreads to everyone around it.
And worse, you have no mercy. You have no compassion. You make bad days worse and the worst days unbearable. You grab hold and won't let go. You drag us through the mud and spit in our faces.
I hate you with a passion unlike any other. You've robbed me of my Mother and have taken away my Father and replaced him with a 4 year old child. Your wake of destruction is long and wide and I hate it. It ripples beyond my understanding. The simple things are hard. The pleasurable things are forgotten.
Alzheimer's, you ruin lives, mine included. You are unbelievably stealthy, determined and patient, and for those things I hate you more.
Worse, the only face you show are the people we love. How can we show our hatred to that face? You put on their skin and parade around like someone we're supposed to love. You're deceitful and cruel.
Society doesn't see you do they? They see the faces of their Mothers and Fathers, Aunts and Uncles. What's so bad about those faces? We love those faces, we love those people. But you're in there, aren't you? Hiding behind their eyes, worming your fingers through their brains.
We see the faces of the people we love becoming more childlike and forgetful. It's almost sweet. "Awwwe," we say. "Look at the sweet old person with the far off look in their eyes." You can't fool me Alzheimer's. I KNOW you're in there.
Alzheimer's, you've made an enemy. I will tell everyone I meet about you. I will make them understand how you hide and deceive. I will ask our government to put money behind killing you. I will make you come out from behind those loving eyes and face the world for the inhumane thing that you are.
It's the least I could do in return for all you've taken from me.
Sign me, I hate Alzheimer's
#dearalz, #ihatealz
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