Alzheimer S Disease Quotes

“She wished she had cancer instead. She'd trade Alzheimer's for cancer in a heartbeat. She felt ashamed for wishing this, and it was certainly a pointless bargaining, but she permitted herself the fantasy anyway. With cancer, she'd have something to fight. There was surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. There was the chance that she could win. Her family and the community at Harvard would rally behind her battle and consider it noble. And even if it defeated her in the end, she'd be able to look them knowingly in the eye and say good-bye before she left.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn't know possible.”
― Tia Walker, The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love

“In the heart or every caregiver is a knowing that we are all connected. As I do for you, I do for me.”
― Tia Walker, The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love

“Accepting the fact that she did indeed have Alzheimer's, that she could only bank on two unacceptably effective drugs available to treat it, and that she couldn't trade any of this in for some other, curable disease, what did she want? Assuming the in vitro procedure worked, she wanted to live to hold Anna's baby and know it was her grandchild. She wanted to see Lydia act in something she was proud of. She wanted to see Tom fall in love. She wanted one more sabbatical year with John. She wanted to read every book she could before she could no longer read.

She laughed a little, surprised at what she'd just revealed about herself. Nowhere in that list was anything about linguistics, teaching, or Harvard. She ate her last bite of cone. She wanted more sunny, seventy-degree days and ice-cream cones.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“She almost thought she'd said the words aloud, but she hadn't. They remained trapped in her head, but not because they were barricaded by plaques and tangles. She just couldn't say them aloud”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“Her ability to use language, that thing that most separates humans from animals, was leaving her, and she was feeling less and less human as it departed. She's said a tearful good-bye to okay some time ago.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“This disease will not be bargained with. I can’t offer it the names of the United States presidents in exchange for the names of my children. I can’t give it the names of the state capitals and keep the memories of my husband.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“But you can see it, Harriet, a look in his eyes, an alertness, as if somewhere behind the disease, behind the scar tissue, behind the fog of disassociation, Bernard is all there, he's just lost his ability to communicate. Like somebody turned off his volume. You're certain he can see everything that is transpiring with crystal clarity, and he can't do a goddamn thing about it.”
― Jonathan Evison, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

“I am daily learning
To be the reluctant guardian of your memories
There was light in those eyes; I miss that”
― Richard L. Ratliff

“Perhaps there is something within the genetic make-up of specific individuals which predisposes them to accumulate and retain aluminium in their brain, as is similarly suggested for individuals with familial Alzheimer’s disease. The new evidence strongly suggests that aluminium is entering the brain in ASD via pro-inflammatory cells which have become loaded up with aluminium in the blood and/or lymph, much as has been demonstrated for monocytes at injection sites for vaccines including aluminium adjuvants. Perhaps we now have the putative link between vaccination and ASD, the link being the inclusion of an aluminium adjuvant in the vaccine.”
― James Morcan, Vaccine Science Revisited: Are Childhood Immunizations As Safe As Claimed?

“They think I don't know what I'm thinking, but I do.”
― Ron Mayes, Sherrod's Legacy: Reflections of Sherrod Mayes and his Descendants

“Age On Purpose. Be intentional in your journey. You define aging. Don't allow aging to define you. It renders helplessness.”
― Macie P. Smith, A Dementia Caregiver's Guide to Care

“It rises again, the frenzied smoke
as the phoenix rises from the ashes
shadows of dreams on the hills
a melange of memories

She speaks in unheard words
poignant with meanings deep
another bird of silence caws
as the breeze swirls and spins

My grandmother told me stories
about the mountains and the lakes
I saw the rainbows of hope
swaying to the music
as the daffodils of joy to the rain

The opalescent sky looks melancholy
as the clouds of Alzheimer's hover her life
perhaps she has not forgotten everything
I hope the moon tells her about me

I keep searching for my footsteps now
smudged in the sands of time
like the proverbial breeze that drifts
but never gets to stay a while

Gazing at old photographs, I keep
the memories treasured and vaulted
a boulevard of thatched moments
a promenade of myriad stories!”
― Avijeet Das

“Tears water our eyes.

"Remember," mom soothes, "like the beautiful blooms beneath the weeds, Nana is still Nana underneath.”
― Kathryn Harrison, Weeds in Nana's Garden: A heartfelt story of love that helps explain Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias.

“It was October in Pennsylvania and on the first morning the ground was frosted. As I walked to breakfast, some guy yelled out, ‘Thirteen inches in the Poconos.’
‘Is that I porn film?’ I asked.”
― George Hodgman, Bettyville: A Memoir

“I pushed him because I knew that something was wrong and he turned to me and said, “I don’t like being like this.”
― Sonia Discher, Dealing with Early-Onset Alzheimer's: Love, Laughter & Tears

“When I got home, I told Steve about the meeting and asked him if he minded me being so vocal. His response was, “NO, I want to stay alive, too.”
― Sonia Discher, Dealing with Early-Onset Alzheimer's: Love, Laughter & Tears

“After menopause, especially after early menopause, lowered estrogen levels translate into a lower and less-oxygen-rich blood supply to the brain, and as you can imagine, this can have some pretty serious side effects, including an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Yet you can create an estrogen fix and reduce this risk back to normal by taking supplemental estrogen during your estrogen window.”
― Mache Seibel, The Estrogen Fix: The Breakthrough Guide to Being Healthy, Energized, and Hormonally Balanced

“A study found that women who took estrogen within 5 years of menopause (a finding that dovetails neatly with The Estrogen Fix) had a 30 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, women who waited and took estrogen at age 65 or later, once their estrogen window had passed, had a 70 percent greater risk of developing the disease. So once again, timing really is everything when it comes to estrogen replacement and the long-term health of your brain and cognitive functioning.”
― Mache Seibel, The Estrogen Fix: The Breakthrough Guide to Being Healthy, Energized, and Hormonally Balanced

“Tu avais commencé sous l'égide de Miranda à écrire des éloges du présent mais maintenant, son présent s'était rétréci jusqu'à n'être qu'un minuscule point de lumière, les ténèbres alentours te confondaient.”
― Nancy Huston, Cantique des plaines

“...the idea of this illness lying low in the shadows, ready to swallow us up, too, at the bend of the road. the disease that eats away memory is surely the most awful of all, because it erases our past day by day, making us disappear little by little, until we've never existed.”
― Cathy Bonidan, The Lost Manuscript

“The Familiar Squatter by Stewart Stafford

Stranger at a ranting roundabout,
Changeling deep in a cranial fog,
An infant brooked with abandon,
The frail bitterness fumed within.

Another dawn, the lid loosens more,
Recognition dims, pleading for hints,
Let me see my reflection in full now,
Squatter with a thousand-yard stare.

A planet downsized to an asteroid belt,
Leave, and I surrender to disintegrate,
Core melts inside this atrophying shell,
Beyond repair, a journey of light ahead.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The Eviction by Stewart Stafford

The mind's paper vessel crumples
Sodden with learning and memory
Ne'er to sail waves of reminiscence
A living statue, hewn by sculptor Time.

The physician nor the shaman console
Self-pitying sobs in the moaning wind
Brought down by jackals in the dunes
The skull's tenant but a daily squatter

Nostalgic waves batter alien shores
Déjà vu of the blood and the collegial
A stranger's reflection in misting eyes
A sandcastle sacked to the four winds

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved”
― Stewart Stafford