For the Heck of it!

I’m not sure how I escaped it (so far) but I’ve never had a close friend or family member suffer from Alzheimer’s. My grandfather had dementia and lost a good portion of his memory, but his dementia didn’t progress the way Alzheimer’s does. His memory stayed the same for several years before he died.

My mother-in-law is getting more forgetful each and every day but she has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I believe the issues she has are normal age-related memory changes. The Alzheimer’s Association web site has a list of the warning signs of Alzheimer’s as well as a chart explaining the difference between Alzheimer’s and normal age-related memory changes. The site is very interesting to me due to the memory issues my mother-in-law is suffering from and because lately her memory seems to be getting worse. Her doctor is aware of her memory issues and she does have regular check-ups but as a family member I do pay careful attention to her and the Alzheimer’s website has a lot of good information.

I’ve recently become aware of the The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk®. This is the nation’s largest event of this type and volunteers of all ages are joining the fight to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease. A typical Memory Walk is a 2-3 miles and held on a weekend morning in the fall. The walk for the Tampa area was held this past March and the next one is scheduled for October 1, 2008. However, there is a walk scheduled for October 6, 2007 in Orlando that is only a little over an hour’s drive from Tampa.

If you are interested in this charitable cause I encourage you to sign up early and even sign up as a team captain. If you do sign up as a team captain or to walk in your own area after reading this post please come back and let me know. I’m very interested to hear from people that participate in the Memory Walk 2007.