Personal Narrative Essay On Alzheimer's Disease

Forgetting things comes naturally with age, so my father’s loss of a name or word did not faze me, especially as he approached seventy. Additionally, being in school across the country made it easy for large changes to look relatively small. But, I soon realized I was avoiding the situation in an effort to comfort myself. Witnessing history repeat itself would be too painful to think about, so I attempted to dismiss it. My mind flashed back to almost ten years ago, my first encounter with a neurodegenerative disorder, at which time my grandmother was slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease. Watching my grandmother’s mind erode and my presence in her life slowly erode was difficult, especially at age 14 when almost everything is personal. Flash-forward

“Who are you?” This is a question I have heard ever since I was sixteen years old, and not from strangers on the streets, from my very own mother. I was a teenager when my mother originally developed Alzheimer’s and then later, dementia. I can still recall the first time she ever asked me that question. It was springtime, I know that because I had just come home from softball practice. I had yet to take even five steps into the house when a shriek rang out.

Every Saturday morning, embraced with the sweet smell of vanilla, a smile that could make the sun jealous, her sweet embrace warmed my heart leading me to believe the world was as kind and gentle as Nana. Every week for ten years Nana, shopped with me, cooked with me, and played with me. She was one of my caretakers.

I was 16 when I learned what it meant to be dead. I had known of it before, but I didn’t really know death -- I was too young to really understand. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to ward off the waves from washing away my grandparents when they were in Mexico, and I was here. We were separated by oceans of land so our contact was limited. And the oceans only got deeper as I realized that Alzheimer's meant something beyond just memory loss. It meant I watched my Abuelito’s glassy eyes lead to an empty attic, and knew I was waiting for a tsunami to take it over like it had the rest of him.

In 2009, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to this determination, my family and I had simply attributed it to the forgetfulness of old age. However, as my grandfather began to ask the same questions within a matter of minutes, we knew there was a deeper issue. After my mother had to stay on the phone to help him navigate previously familiar roads, she took him to the doctor. Years went by and his cognizance and memory began to deteriorate even further. Upon the death of my maternal grandmother, he moved in with my family due to his inability to live alone. My grandfather required constant supervision and monitoring at all waking hours. These circumstances exposed us even further to this disease as we realized the

Comfortably dying, steadily but surely eradicating the remainder of my humanity. Cells dying, dilating then slowly leaking away into the bloodstream. I am dying, I can comprehend the events that are occurring even though I am young. The heart rate monitor has a relaxing drone; which suppresses my depression and continuous tears. How do you accept dying at the age of nine? Oh right, you are not supposed to.

Every morning I wake up and it is the same routine. I start with brushing my teeth, shower, get ready, make breakfast, and head to work. When and if I miss doing something because I ran out of time or I was in a hurry and just forgot I find myself frustrated. Can you imagine waking up and not remembering your routine at all? Image waking up and not remembering a loved one, how do you feel? At this moment you are feeling like someone with Alzheimer’s disease.

I hit a boy with a bat in the second grade after he said “short girls can’t play baseball.” I saw red, and as my mom says, “When Audrey is seeing red, let her be.” Overcome with emotion and not thinking about consequences, I was too young to find a constructive way to deal with things that upset me. It would not be until my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago that I found a balance.

Growing up I was always knew I was going to be great. I always told myself I could be whatever I put I mind to. When I graduated high school I went off to college,Wilberforce University to study communications. I wanted to be a writer for a large magazine and I always envisioned myself living in a big city, New York City to be exact! I had a passion for writing like nobody’s business. So off to college I went. School was great and then life took over so there had to be changes to the agenda.

Having Alzheimer’s would cause your parents to forget everything over time, including you, their only child. Because you were so young, Alden and I decided to tell you that they had just been killed. We figured it would be better for you to believe that they were dead than to tell you that they do not even remember who you are. But, throughout these past few months, we have noticed that you haven’t forgotten about them, and no matter how hard we have tried to prevent you, you have always tried to find a way to see your parents again.”

Alzheimer’s affects more than five million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, and it causes more deaths than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined (Alzheimer’s Association®, 2016). The number of people with Alzheimer’s grows daily and is expected to continue to increase tremendously over the years to come. So what is Alzheimer’s and what are the effects it has on one’s life?

It’s the ultimate package: a sporty vehicle that can’t wait for weekend getaways that still translates to your everyday lifestyle.

Try and put yourself in the situation of truly having to deal with the situation that you selected.

When I walked into the bowling alley to conduct interview and explain to Walt my purpose of this assignment, I had no doubt in my mind things would be smooth. I had done several interview before and never had doubts, barriers or skepticism before, during or after. I assumed that getting personal with someone this age would be simple thinking they would be happy to tell what that have done for over seven decades. Upon meeting Walt, I shook his hand and knew he would be somewhat of a challenge per his body language a greeting comment. His greeting to me was, “Evening, life interview huh, I’ll see what all I can tell you. (Gladden. personal communication. November 21, 2017.).” My initial assumption was wrong and I went in thinking this man was going divulge me his personal experience no hesitation because of my professionalism, slight personal connections of interest and military connection.

Researchers are on the look out of why some individuals who have the brain changes associated with the earlier points of the continuum do not go on to develop the over symptoms of the later points of the continuum. The accumulation of the protein beta-amyloid outside neurons in the brain and the accumulation of the protein tau inside neurons are the main contributors in the development of the Alzheimer's disease. A healthy adult brain will contain 100 billion neurons, each with long, branching extensions. These extensions will help individual neurons to form specialized connections with other neurons. These specialized connections are called synapses, and information flows in tiny chemical pulses released by one neuron and detected by