Dr. Alice Howland is a thoroughly modern, middle-aged professional woman. A brilliant, psycholinguist, she is the William James Professor of Psychology at Harvard University where she studies the mechanism of languages. But she feels as if something isn 't right. For Alice it begins with forgotten words during lectures, a moment in Harvard Square where she has no idea where she is nor how to get home, a forgotten trip to the airport to catch a plane to a conference she 'd spent the day preparing for, and names on to-do lists that mean nothing to her. Suspecting that something is seriously wrong, and without the knowledge of her husband, John, Alice goes to see her doctor who refers her to a neurologist. After testing, Alice receives the stunning diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer 's. It is both numbing and terrifying for her. She is 50 years old. Alice struggles to tell John, who is a cancer cell biologist, because telling him will make it all "real". When she does, his reaction is almost cerebral and clinical. At first reluctant to believe her, John offers Alice no comfort. Instead he tells her he needs to find out more about Alzheimer 's. They decide to have Alice undergo genetic testing, which if positive, would support the clinical diagnosis, but if negative, would not necessarily rule it out. When genetic testing confirms her diagnosis, Alice and John must now come to terms with her disease, what this will mean to them as a couple and individually, and the implications
The brain slowly starts to diminish in the elderly. According the Maslow, this stage in life is a life review (Berger, 2011). Allie and Noah’s life is in a review throughout the entire movie. Allie is trying to remember what her life was like. Unfortunately, Allie comprehends the story Noah is telling her, but doesn’t realize it is herself. She states in the movie, “this is a great story, the girl seems so amazing” (Cassavetes, 2004). Her lack of ability to remember is due a threat to her development. Allie has Alzheimer’s disease, which is a disease that one cannot remember due to the proliferation of plaques and tangles in the cerebral cortex (Berger, 2011). This disease is common in the elderly. Alzheimer’s has taken over Allies life, as she
Agustin was a 76-year-old male, who lived in a comfortable home with his wife Juana in Hastings, NE. He was a healthy man, until his wife started noticing that something was different about him. Over time, Juana would start to notice that Agustin would forget simple things such as the date &time and would go to the store and forget to bring back the food she had requested. This concerned Juana, so, she convinced Agustin to go to the emergency room. Once at the emergency room, Dr. Matthew, began to ask Agustin some questions about his medical and family history. Turns out, Agustin’s family had a history of Alzheimer’s. Nonetheless, the doctors wanted to be sure about the diagnosis, so they decided to perform some mental and verbal tests on Agustin.
Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. “Anosognosia effects 81% of those with Alzheimer’s disease” (Stevenson 1) and it may worsen as Alzheimer’s progresses. The first symptom of Alzheimers’s is often difficulty remembering new information. Although, as it progresses the symptoms become more severe and could lead to confusion, disorientation, changes in mood, and suspicions of family, friends and caregivers. “I have found that women with Alzheimer’s disease, especially those who have outlived their husbands, tend to misidentify a daughter” (Feinberg 34). Emma, an eighty year old patient of Feinberg’s, claims to have two daughters named Betty. One of them being the “real Betty” and the other being the “assistant” Betty. Emma’s Alzheimer’s has progressed to the point where she is excessively confused and can’t comprehend she has a disease. She therefore has anosognosia. Not all cases of Alzheimer’s are as bizarre as Emma’s situation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not equally as
Alzheimer is like mental cancer. It eats away inside you stealthily, slowly destroying you before anyone knows it is even there. It oozes in like a septic tide, consuming thoughts, memory, and personality like real cancer takes your bodily organs. In the early stages it is hard to tell where personal aberrations end, and Alzheimer’s begins, but in the end one looks for anything untouched by the illness. One of the frightening things about Alzheimer’s is how the first signs of the disease make their appearance in the most benign and normal events. Things we might laugh at as silly mistakes are really signs of something much worse than we imagine. When Alzheimer’s occurs where there is no family history, people look back at events that were warning signs, and shake their heads, thinking, “If only we had known what that meant.” In families where Alzheimer’s has left a mark down through the generations there can develop an almost mania of examining family and self as every little mistake and personality quirk is put to the question of “Is that Alzheimer’s?” What are natural human failures, and what are grim portents of a terrible future fast approaching? The question becomes fraught with weight. For family, the sentence of disease is a sentence to watching as someone you love is lost to grinding humiliation and helplessness. For the victim, it is going mad, and knowing it. It is pain—a mental and emotional pain like any physical torment as what you have is torn from you, one
Still Alice gave me insight as to how this disease can affect many other families other than my own in many similar ways. Seeing Alice go through he stages of dementia, and the affect the disease had on her executive function are what caught my attention the most while reading the book, since those aspects are some that I have witnessed my grandfather go through. One of the most interesting things about the book is that Alice was diagnosed with early onset and could understand what was going to happen to her before it
I chose to read Still Alice by Lisa Genova for this critical book review. I chose this book because I have a strong interest in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. I also work with clients who are living with dementia and I can see how much of an impact that has on both my clients and their families. We hear stories about Alzheimer’s disease from doctors or caregivers all the time, but it is so rare to get to learn about the disease straight from the source, or straight from the person actually living through the progression of the disease.
Since Alice is not thoroughly involved with the work of her sister and father, she spends the majority of the book expressing her concern with various ethical issues that come to mind. As mentioned earlier, Alice’s primary concern is whether or not she and her sister are diagnosed with Huntington’s. Since her grandfather and mother both had the disease, she must consider the fact that the more the disease is passed down, the more likely it is that it will be expressed at a younger age ("Genes and Human Disease"). As a result, she must keep in mind that if she does turn out to have the disease, not only will her offspring have a 50% chance of being diagnosed with disease, but they also have the possibility of expressing the symptoms at a younger age. In addition, she has the unfortunate experience
Moreover, she also added “I am a wife, mother, and friend, and soon to be grandmother. I still feel, understand, and am worthy of the love and joy in those relationship. I am still an active participant in society.” (p.282) From this text reflected, Loss of memory's Alice that do not make she feel worthless and enjoyable, and she has a good relationships in her family which showed that the symptoms of Alice is not a difficulty for her.
He would crash his car leading Cromer to disconnect his car battery, urinate in public, and ultimately lose his job. In contrast, Gralnick, in his heyday, was a prominent physician focusing in oncology and hematology at the National Institute of Health. He is known on an international scale for his groundbreaking research in leukemia. As the disease progressed, He spent three months degeneration was fast. He became increasingly forgetful and was soon unable to do basic tasks for himself. Harvey was incontinent, unable to bathe himself, unable to feed himself, and sometimes even abusive. These symptoms are very common for those with Alzheimer’s disease many patients also experience lack of sleep (Whitbourne, 2011, p. 103). He even went as far as to knock a few of Meryl’s teeth out. It was therefore up to Meryl to meet these needs in the book, which is quite a tall order in terms of caregiving. This demand caused her social and work life that was once vibrant and bustling to diminish to nearly nothing. She also had to cater to her husband’s outburst in addition to caring for his daily needs. She would set up mirrors in the house in order to see when he was coming so that she would not be taken by surprise. The caregiver burden, a term used to define the stress that caregivers endure, is very evident in Meryl’s case (Whitbourne, 2011, p.
The Dancing Bear explores a taboo subject that most people are reluctant to converse about. Alzheimer’s Diseases, It is a neurological disease that affects over 40 million people and yet our society remains largely ignorant about. A study conducted by Harvard University researchers found that the majority of people were not aware of this disease and an even larger percentage did not know how to care for someone with it. Dr. Alois Alzheimer first described ”a peculiar disease“ haunting Auguste D., a patient who had unexplained memory loss, unfounded suspicions about her family, and other worsening psychological changes. This sounds dangerously similar to the events laid out by Guy Vanderhaeghe, in his short story “ The Dancing Bear.
Tara’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Tara’s mother slowly started forgetting little things and is progressively
The differences between the smart professor and the ailing elderly are remarkably obvious when the story comes to the time Alice wants to commit suicide. The Alice on the computer screen is so brave and confident, however, the Alice, in reality, has been dispirited by
“Today someone in the [United States] develops Alzheimer’s disease every 66 seconds. By 2050, one new case of Alzheimer’s is expected to develop every 33 seconds” (Alzheimer’s Association, 2016, Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures, pg. 459). The 2014 film, Still Alice, provides substantially crafted insight into a life with this tragic disease. The film follows the life of protagonist Alice, age 50, a linguistics professor at Columbia University. It showcases the struggles that she faces in coming to terms with her disorder and the strife she faces upon degradation of her memory. While accurate in many of its approaches, Still Alice, in some facets, is marginally simplified.
After watching, Still Alice (Lutzus, Brown, Koffler, Glazter & Westmoreland, 2014), I was at a loss for words. The movie provoked feelings and thoughts that were both, heart-wrenching and heart-warming. Although there is not a set time for progression of the Early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD), I believe that the movie portrayed a quicker progression than one would see in real life. Other than the rapid progression, I was impressed with how true to life the situation was presented. When tragedy strikes, even the most loving family, can be ripped apart. Someone, as Alice, who has always had their life under control can be thrown completely off track by a devastating medical condition.
When she found out she had Alzheimer’s, her life began to change. Her illness is a genetic one and probably her children could have it too. Then, she tells them the situation. Over time, every time she was going to dictate a class, she forgot the topic. As a result, the dean of the university decided to fire her. Alice started looking for the way to go forward and keeping with her all the things she had built. Even so, the illness did not stop and she continued losing her mind. She was highly worried about the situation since she knew that one day she would forget everything about herself and her family.