Help, I've Lost My Brain

By Richard Taylor Saturday, March 15, 2008

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I am experiencing some loss of brain function. A brain replacement is presently unavailable – they can’t find the proper donor, it isn’t covered by my insurance, and I don’t want to become someone entirely different than my current self.

I do need the help of professionals, caregivers and friends to compensate as best I can for my loss of functionality. I can use help from technology. What I don’t need is for others to think of me, to treat me as if I’m missing something…..missing what? My brain? Me? My humanity? My need to be love and accepted for who I am? My needs for dignity and privacy, for a personal sense of self, to understand and appreciate every moment of my life – especially today?

I do not mean to imply the loss of a limb or the loss of limbs isn’t traumatic and life changing. I do mean to imply that the loss of some cognitive function while traumatic is not life changing in the sense I am any less a complete and full person every day of my life.

Richard

March 15

Will the real Alzheimer's Disease Please Stand Up?

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Comments (5) | Add comment

3/15/08 12:45pm

Richard, you are right, you are still you and nothing is changed. My experience is that the person may change the habits or lose memory, but the personality is still there. People say the personality changes, but I think it is really just the change of the memory. The personality is still there. e.g, my father-in-law has moderate/severe Alzheimer's and he is 87 buit his personality is still there for sure. Even when he got sick and did not walk for 1 month, his personality was still there!

Nina

Sue

3/17/08 9:08pm

Dear Richard,

As always your post is superb! Your candor and humor are well appreciated and I hope you continue to write with us for as long as you are able.

Your point is spot on. I suspect there are many people with Alzheimer's and dementia that feel the same way. I also wonder if there are lots of caregivers and family and friends who struggle with their own fears and sadness ( albeit selfish) of the loss of the "original" loved one.

But with people like you sharing with us how it really is, there will for sure be changes, even small ones, by many.

I look forward to hearing fro you again soon. All the best, sue

Leah, Health Guide

3/18/08 3:40pm

Lord knows, Richard, we are in this thing together. Take each day, one at a time. Thank God for all you DO have and the rest won't matter so much.

Leah

sympathatic friend

3/19/08 6:22pm

God Bless you Richard. You are exactly correct...you are the same person and if I knew you I would love you the same. My friend's husband has the horrible disease and she is not dealing well with it. She like others see you, cannot see her husband as the person he was and cherish the time they have left together and it makes me crazy. I am searching this site for answers...for her. Hopefully I can find a place where she can go and let go of her feelings and get support from people who are in her position. I am not completely unaware of how she feels in that I have a very dear to me Aunt suffering from the same disease. She was diagnosed with altzheimers at 60 much like my friend's husband and she is now 70 and still with us. But we love her today as we did the day she learned she had it. My friend, not so much. Bless you.

3/20/08 10:56am

Hi sympathetic friend, I think we cannot make other people face the reality. However I think we need to be fair to know that your friend - the wife of an ALzheimer's patient is doing what she can do. After all she is living with her sick husband. In times she will learn to cope with it. It is her pain. I don't think she is not dealing with him. She is dealing with him everyday. It is just that her way is not our way and she prefers not to learn about ALzheimer's. But you can teach her when you see her and help her to understand Alzheimer's.

Nina

Help, I've Lost My Brain

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