DementiAwareness

Would Dad mind that I mention him, that I post his picture on this DementiAwareness blog? That question nags at me.

My father was always very proud of my work as a journalist. And I enjoyed, when he came to visit, that he could open the daily newspaper and read articles written by his daughter. But those stories weren’t about me, or him. They did not publicize our family.

This blog sort of does.

It’s too late to ask my Dad how he feels about, well, pretty much anything. We can’t trust much of what he says (he often says he’s hungry just after finishing a meal) so I have to imagine what his response would be, based on the 44 years I’ve known him. Would he be proud of my work? Or embarassed of the content and its occasional reference to him? Would he feel shame?

My father never sought publicity, at least not for himself. But he was willing to promote certain causes. When I was little, he posed for a magazine cover during the energy crisis, bundled in a blanket for a story about energy conservation.

He was a lover of science, too, and when he watched TV, it was often a documentary or educational program. I remember watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins together every week growing up.

So I’m thinking that if he were in his right mind, my Dad would relish learning about frontotemporal lobe dementia. I think he could appreciate the mystery of the disease, if he weren’t suffering from it so. I even think he would forgive me for sometimes referring to him in the past tense, even though he is still alive and, at least physically, well.

This is my Dad, who–like so many others–hovers between the here and the hereafter in a body gripped with dementia. It’s a sad situation, one with which many of you can identify.

For 22 years, I’ve covered health and medicine in some capacity for The Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY. I’m a devoted and passionate journalist who likes learning, enjoys writing and feels grateful to play a role in helping to make sense of our often-confusing healthcare system.

My background includes training (and volunteering) as a paramedic until parenthood provided other things for me to do with my time. I also spent three years to obtain a master’s degree in Health Services Management and Policy. For a while, I taught at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

I’ll blog here regularly, with news and information of interest to people affected by Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease. Check back often. You can also follow me on Twitter, where I’ll “tweet” each post.

Meanwhile, let me know if you’ve got a question related to dementia. I don’t pretend to know everything, but I am pretty good at digging to find answers.