Impressions of Alzheimer's Conference West Palm Beach FL, June 8 & 9, 2006

Malcolm Leissring, Ph.D Lead Alzheimer's Researcher Scripps Florida This Morning's IPOD Playlist: Music from Grace Cathedral, San Francisco and Westminster Abbey, London I went away from the first day of the conference feeling nervous and unsettled. I began to get choked up and cry listening to the panel of caregivers and patients on the stage. There were six families. For privacy reasons I want to change the name of the gentleman and his family who my heart. I'll call him Lawrence. When the moderator of the panel introduced Lawrence and his family she included in Lawrence's autobiographical information that Lawrence was born in 1951. Hmm, I thought to myself. Lawrence is the first person I've met in the four months since being diagnosed with this disease who is the same age as me: 54. Lawrence's wife and two teenage sons were on the stage with Lawrence. His wife told the crowd of 500-600 people that Lawrence's memory had become worse in the past year since the last conference. His son's spoke of their love for their dad and their sadness that Lawrence's memory continues to fade and that he will not be able to rejoice with them in their graduations, their marriages or the births of their children. They take their dad to the beach and enjoy doing things with them. They taught their friends that their dad is important to them and in spite of his illness, he is their dad and a part of the package of friendship. Lawrence cried on and off during the panel discussion and shared how much he loves his family. Lawrence no longer can drive and he shared with me afterward that the medications were ineffective. We shook hands and he introduced me to his wife. When I got in my car I was shaking and cried for 10 minutes. I cried for Lawrence, his family and all the human suffering this terrible disease has caused. And I cried because the path that the disease has taken in Lawrence is similar to mine. I wondered if I would still be driving and going to work everyday a year from now. Will I be in a nursing home? Will I remember Larry? My brothers? My pastor? My friends? Will I remember my travels to England? Will I remember anything I accomplished in this life? Will I remember the hours I spent on street corners or walking the halls of congress trying to help make this world a better place for working families, the poor, the disenfranchised, for union members, for gay and lesbian American Citizens? Will I remember any of these things? I took some deep breaths. I prayed and took deeper breaths. Jesus is with me, I said to myself. I kept reminding myself over and over what I told myself when I looked at the PET Scan results that day in February and knew what the neurologist was going to tell me: Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease. What I told myself is that this disease is a spiritual journey. I have things to do and a life to live and I'm going to keep on being positive and enjoy my walk with Jesus and learn all I can from this experience. During Friday's session, I took the Hurricane Preparedness/Special Needs course in the breakaway session. Another class I took was Creating a Legacy, learning how to record my values and beliefs of life to leave when I'm gone. But the greatest part of the conference was the Alzheimer's Research Update with Dr. Malcolm Leissring, lead Alzheimer's scientist for Scripps Research Institute Florida. The presentation of the robot system shows the high tech capabilities of research which wasn't available just a few years ago. Dr. Malcolm also explained how the new experimental Alzheimer's vaccine works on the plaques around the cells in the brain. Hopefully this will be a successful study. By the way, I am being considered for this study and my app't with the the doctor is in a week or two. You can learn more about Dr. Leissring and his research at http://www.scripps.edu/florida/ I met a real neat lady. Her name is Patty. She sat next to me during Dr. Leissring's presentation. Her dad passed away in January. Please see Patty's web site which has some pictures of her dad and beautiful family. It is also a way to contribute directly to Alzheimer's Research Scripps Florida: http://www.theunforgettablefund.com/ Meanwhile, I'm going to keep on going to work every day, working my crosswords and downloading my pictures and music to my Ipod. In fact, I read last night that Bishop Robinson's message at the Integrity Eucharist at the Episcopal Church General Convention. Love ya, Gordon