Last night I was watching the Senate Committee on Aging, /Alzheimer's Sub Group hearings on C-Span. I learned that the number of Alzheimer's cases has doubled since 1990 and continues to rise.
Elsewhere on my blog I posted about some of the research going on here in Florida. Supporting this research is important. What I like about Senate Bills 897 and 898 is that is the result of research from real life situations and real life research accomplishments. The financial and emotional tolls on families are devastating. Long term care assistance is provided for in this legislation as well as an increase in the funding for research. There are several promising drugs getting closer to market.
Please consider writing to your senators asking that they support Senate Bills 897 and 898.
As far as my own disease process goes, I have periods of zipping along through life just fine, not forgetting words or task needing to be done and other times when I feel perplexed. In Washington, DC last week, I did well until my very last day.
I spent my last day in DC at Washington National Cathedral because I wanted to see the interment site of Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan and to do some shopping in the bookstore.
I had a wonderful afternoon sometimes sitting in one of the chapels, chatting with a tour guide and sitting on a bench and drinking coffee in one of the gardens. To me, there are two Taj Mahals of Anglicanism: Canterbury Cathedral and our National Cathedral. Both always leave me in awe. The deep spirituality of both cathedrals is something I feel when I 'm in those places.
Anyway, it was time to get back to my hotel to claim my luggage and get to the airport. So I headed down Massachusetts Ave and caught a cab to Starbucks near my hotel for a cappuccino. Starbucks is two blocks from my hotel. Never the less, I managed to get totally lost which had not happened before during my stay. I walked and walked and nothing was familiar.
I ended up at DuPont Circle, saw Starbucks and walked in to see if the familiar face of the person who served my coffee would indeed assure me that I was in the Starbucks I had been to earlier. I was lucky. The lady who served me was behind the counter and she pointed to the street along the side of Starbucks. All I had to do was walk the way she pointed down that street.
I thought about this experience while watching Senator Mikulski talking about her dad's Alzheimer's and my own parent's who both had Alzheimer's getting lost on a drive in South Florida.
The whole thing is scary, but I remain positive that a cure or way of managing the disease will come in the not too distant future. And I also hope that my disease takes a similar course of my dad's. He kept his humor, still drove, still enjoyed his ministry of visiting folks in a local nursing home and enjoyed life to the fullest. He passed away in peace from a heart attack with his family with him. My dad had class and dignity to the end. For that I am grateful and only hope I can be so lucky.
Please visit the Alzheimer's Association Website
Senator Mikulski Introduces Comprehensive Alzheimer's Breakthrough Legislation
Senator Mikulski continued her fight for Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers by introducing two critical bills this month – The Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act of 2007 (S. 898) and The Family Assistance Act of 2007 (S. 897).
The Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act of 2007 doubles funding for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), giving researchers the resources they need to make breakthroughs that are on the horizon in diagnosis, prevention and intervention.
The Family Assistance Act of 2007 creates a $3,000 tax credit for families caring for a loved one with a chronic condition like Alzheimer’s to help them pay for prescription drugs, home health care and special day care.
"I’m on the side of people with Alzheimer’s and the families who love and care for them.
Research that is going on right now is the master key that will one day open doors to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s," said Senator Mikulski. "Ninety-five percent of what we know about Alzheimer’s disease, we’ve learned in the past 15 years. We must stay the course and continue the investment. We need to do more and we need to do better."
As Chairman of the Retirement Security and Aging Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, this month Senator Mikulski also convened the subcommittee's first hearing of the 110th Congress, and examined the need for a continued investment of federal resources in Alzheimer’s research and programs.
For more information, go to: http://mikulski.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=270936.
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