Folding Forum

I just want to share an article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18067401 about a family ruined by early-onset Alzheimer's.
Honestly reading that made me really sad. Fold on!

Thanks for the post, Iceman.

My Dad has dementia, he will be turning 84 Saturday and has been in a slow decline for about 5 years now. While he still has a number of faculties, it is a long goodbye. As the months tick off the calendar, the erosion spreads, and requires more and more support. Luckily, I am still able to care for him at home, but it is heartbreaking to see him just watching and falling asleep in front of the television day after day. At one point he was conscious of the erosion of his memory, but I think he does not know anymore. He seems to think that he wants to live to 100, watching TV "to get the most entertainment in before I go." It is horrifying to me to think of a time where he is holding on and not even recognizing me. I have my own issues myself, and often mentally wrestle whether when it comes time where he is totally mentally gone, whether I could/would assist in his suicide. We are put in a Catch-22, we have all these wonderful medicines to help us live longer lives/avoid death, yet this extension leads to further degenerative diseases that take away the quality of life itself. In these case of AD and dementia, the life becomes inhumane/non-human/vegetative.

Hopefully governments will wake up and have a death with dignity law soon to help those in severe situations. Moreover, hopefully our efforts here will lead to the drugs that can prevent these debilitating diseases.


Fold on, people, fold on.

I'm sorry to hear that, tawpgk. Let's hope the whole FAH project can make a difference.