3/3/06 One Day At A Time

This Morning's CD: Secret Garden Today was a great day. I got up reminding myself to take one day at a time. Work went well. When I got home I was doing some research on Early Onset Alzheimer's research. I ran across a Feb. 16, 2006 NewsDay article which cited recent Columbia University research on the subject. The gist of the article was that educated people or folks with high IQ's develop Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease but it's not diagnosed until it's pretty far along due to their brain being able to compensate for the cognitive deficit. This wasn't what I wanted to hear. I had to call my doctor today about some lab work and while I had him on the phone I had asked him if he has ANY idea how long it would be before I totally lose all my marbles. Well, I didn't put it EXACTLY that way, but you know what I mean. He explained that nobody has been able to tell me that because nobody knows because everybody is different and the disease works different in different people. I didn't let the Columbia study upset me at all. I've read several different studies. And you know what? My doctor is right. None of the studies show the same thing. Some of them show NO difference in early onset symptomology and non-early onset as far as rate of decline goes. So it's a matter of enjoying each day, taking one day at a time and working my program: puzzles, brain exercises, keeping up my activities with friends, intellectual stimulation and positive thinking. Larry and me went to a lecture series tonight. The topic was Comparative Islamic Fundamentalism. We learned the history of Islam going back a couple of thousand years. Those are the kinds of things I'm going to keep engaging in to help keep my mind sharp. Well, I need to sign off for now. I will be in Washington, DC for a week. Gordon