Alzheimer’s Challenge—the Initial Reality

On my way to work this morning I heard this read on the “Car Talk” radio show—a typically terrific rerun of several years’ ago featuring the late Tom Magliozzi and his brother Ray. They titled the piece “AAADD [age activated attention deficit disorder]: The Warning Signs”. The irony is that Tom died in November of 2014 at age 77 of issues associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. They may have known even at the time that Tom was already showing signs of this dread brain disease and decided to laugh about it, and let us laugh, while they / we still could. 

I decide to wash the car; I start toward the garage and notice the mail on the table. OK, I'm going to wash the car, but first I'm going to go through the mail. I lay the car keys down on the desk, discard the junk mail and I notice the trash can is full.

OK, I'll just put the bills on my desk and take the trash can out, but since I'm going to be near the mailbox anyway, I'll pay these few bills first. Now, where is my check book?

OOPS, there's only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk. Oh, there's the coke I was drinking. I'm going to look for those checks. But first I need to put my coke further away from the computer, or maybe I'll pop it into the fridge to keep it cold for a while.

I head towards the kitchen and my flowers catch my eye; they need some water. I set the coke on the counter and ooh, oh! There are my glasses. I was looking for them all morning! I'd better put them away first. I fill the container with water and head for the flower pots —aaaaagh! Someone left the TV remote in the kitchen. We will never think to look in the kitchen tonight when we want to watch television so I'd better put it back in the family room where it belongs.

I splash some water into the pots and onto the floor. I throw the remote onto a soft cushion on the sofa and I head back down the hall trying to figure out what it was I was going to do.

END OF DAY: The car isn't washed, the bills are unpaid, the coke is sitting on the kitchen counter, the flowers are half watered, the check book still only has one check in it and I can't seem to find my car keys! When I try to figure out how come nothing got done today, I'm baffled because I KNOW I WAS BUSY ALL DAY LONG!!!

I realize this is a serious condition and I'll get help, BUT FIRST, I think I'll check my e-mail. Please send this to everyone you know because I DON'T REMEMBER WHO I'VE SENT THIS TO! But please don't send it back to me or I might send it to you again!!!!!!!!