<story><title>Having Alzheimer’s at 38 (2015)</title><url>http://site.macleans.ca/longform/alzheimers/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>entropy_</author><text>My wife&amp;#x27;s family has a different disease running through it, though one with very similar outcomes. Huntington&amp;#x27;s.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s genetic and dominant (so a parent having it means 50&amp;#x2F;50 for the children). Average age of onset is 38. Symptoms are a mixture of Alzheimer&amp;#x27;s and Parkinson&amp;#x27;s (both dementia and motor control issues).&lt;p&gt;Her uncle was diagnosed at 38, her mother at 50. I wasn&amp;#x27;t around for the first one, but have been there for most of the latter case (her mother is now 60).&lt;p&gt;Watching someone you love deteriorate before your eyes and become a different person week by week is one of the most harrowing experiences one can go through.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;You pick up the phone, you talk to your mom, you don’t have to say anything. It’s a mom&amp;quot;. My wife had to go through discovering motherhood without that and she still can&amp;#x27;t adjust to the fact that her mother is not the same person anymore, it&amp;#x27;s a constant heartbreak.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m just glad there&amp;#x27;s a simple test for this and that both my wife and her one brother tested negative. So I&amp;#x27;ll never have to go through what Robin did but that possibly was something I had to contemplate for a while and just the thought of it (and those 2 months waiting for the test results) almost broke me</text></comment>
<story><title>Having Alzheimer’s at 38 (2015)</title><url>http://site.macleans.ca/longform/alzheimers/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>FlyingSideKick</author><text>My Mother started experiencing dementia at 57 and it has been difficult to see such a brilliant, adventurous worldly woman change. She is still the person whom she was but now she is a creature of habit and does the same thing and the same time everyday of the week. Leaving her neighborhood and visiting new places including restaurants and parks makes her uncomfortable. She used to love traveling to places like Kenya, Portugal and Indonesia but now she just wants to stay local. She was quite a sculptor too but gave that up to raise five children and now that all of us are out of the house she doesn’t have the capacity to peruse her old passion any longer. Moreover our conversations have progressively become shorter and shorter over the years and lost a lot of depth. As her son it’s very difficult to deal with. Moreover I’m in constant fear I will be afflicted too as my grandmother had Alzheimer’s as well. Maybe AI or some other tool will be utilized to develop medications and treatments to halt and reverse the disease in the future, fingers crossed.</text></comment>