Blogging and blogging

Like everyone I know, I have a Busy Life. My husband wonders why on earth I added 'blogging' to this List of Things I Am Committed To . . . and I really had no answer other than I find it enjoyable.
Thus: I blog.

I have a Dear Friend who started blogging about a very serious matter (unlike my aimless musings). This friend has always been an Encourager and a Helper (within her family, with her friends, in her church and her community).

Now, she is documenting her husband's Journey with Alzheimer's as she walks beside him. Alzheimer's is similar to cancer only in that it is indiscriminate; it affects (attacks) people in all walks of life, all levels of education, all genders, etc. It is a very Sneaky Disease.

I read somewhere (can't talk much about memory, I guess!) that people with Alzheimer's stand on ground that is constantly shifting beneath their feet.

Those who love and care for a spouse, relative, patient, or friend who has been stricken with this disease also face the unexpected on a daily basis. The caregiver too is living with Alzheimer's. My friend (with her Servant/Helper psyche) is bravely documenting this Journey with her beloved husband in the hope of helping others who face this dreadful disease: either personally or as they watch a loved one disappear. I so admire her. I pray for her. I pray for her husband. I pray for a cure.

Some Statistics

- Approximately 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Unless a cure or prevention is found, that number will increase to 14 million by 2050.
- An estimated 280,000 Texas have Alzheimer’s disease.
- One in eight persons over 65 and nearly half of those over 85 have AD. A small percentage of people as young as their 30s and 40s get the disease.
- Direct and indirect costs of AD and other dementia’s amount to more than $148 billion annually.
- Almost 10 million Americans are caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia; approximately one out of three of these caregivers is 60 years or older.
- In 2005, it was estimated that unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias provided 8.5 billion hours of care valued at almost $83 billion dollars.
- More than half the states in the United States provide more than a billion dollars in unpaid care each year – Texas $5.8 billion.

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Even an ordinary task, when done in love, is divine service.

http://movingforwardwithalzheimers.blogspot.com/
http://www.actionalz.blogspot.com/

http://www.dasninternational.org/