Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave…

My entire family has had first hand experience with Alzheimer’s and the effects not only of it upon our mother but the collateral effects as well. My maternal grandfather had it as well so it is a pretty sure bet that it is a genetic link in that family tree branch. I have discovered, while doing some family genealogy, a freaky amount of others in that branch of my family tree that have also succumbed to the disease. This is a serious flaw in many genetic family trees.
The projection for the continuing rise of this insidious disease is astounding. Right now there are approximately 5.2 million people with Alzheimer’s disease in the US alone. That number is projected to rise to 7.7 million or above by 2030…a more than 50% increase. By mid-century that is seen as being about 11-16 million people. These are very somber numbers. Think about this…as the side of the scale of those with Alzheimer’s is weighted, what about the other side of the scale? Our children and grandchildren, who will number fewer than ever before in history, will be footing the bill for this, not to mention having in some cases to be caregivers as well. (Figures taken from the Alzheimer’s Association web site: http://www.alz.org/index.asp )
My mother, when living, cost the State of Ohio somewhere between $3000.00 and $5000.00 per month. That was on a good month. When she became ill I would guesstimate that number went to about $10,000.00 for hospital, doctor and medicine costs. Who will be able to pay for $5000.00 on average for 7.7 million people? Will the care of those of us who are then elderly suffer? Will it leave our kids/grandkids living in poverty to pay taxes for the care of the older generations once the family inheritance is eaten away by those horrendous bills for care? If you aren’t thinking about, perhaps it is time you did.
In my previous blog (Death and Dying--Decisions and Choices) I made a plea for allowing people the choice to end their lives once they knew they were dying. Alzheimer’s is, as of now, a terminal disease. I do not advocate putting anyone who is still viable to sleep! However, there is a point in the Alzheimer’s disease process where the ability to speak, eat, interact with the world around you is gone. The brain is so diseased that these functions no longer exist. This is form of very slow and torturous death in my opinion. I saw it, I lived it and far more importantly my mother and grandfather lived it. If there had been an “out” for them would they have taken it? I can’t rightfully say about my grandfather, I never knew him much before he was “cursed” by dementia. However, on my mother’s grave, I swear that she would have. However, the fine citizens of Ohio made sure she had no easy “out”…she had to go the distance and die via gangrene and pneumonia. Not a way many of us would have chosen, huh? There is a much more merciful way to allow people to leave their bodies.
Alzheimer’s is a disease where plaques and tangles form in the nerve cells of the brains. Many of you now reading this blog may be weaving your very own web and not be aware of it…yet. The title for this blog comes not only from that medical fact but from the fact that as long as we avoid adopting right-to-die laws for just such people who are caught in those webs of tangles in their own brains, we weave a very horrific web for ourselves in the future. It will indeed be a case of being the living dead caught in the web of the spider called Alzheimer’s and we won’t be able to break free of it. Think about that when you look at your parents or even your own face in the mirror.

Mirror, mirror upon the wall,
who next to this disease will fall?
Who lies in silence, unable to talk
or saunter down the hall, unable to walk?
Who will forget the ones they love
and can’t be let free to go above?
Show me not my own face,
show me mercy and show me grace.