Facing forgetfu. Eleanor SO YOU can’t remember _ where you put your glasses, eh? Or where you put the ‘ Library slip. You forgot to pay the telephone bill, too, and somebody left the i iron "on to go get that recipe for . Louise and now look at the “ironing-board : cover. . What a mess. What's the matter ~ vith you? You tell yourself you're just getting old, but say, it just could ’ be, maybe you're into the dreaded _ _ Alzheimer’s Disease? -P’ve been doing some of this oe » agonizing myself, lately. It’s pretty: . silly, because if I really think I'm - afflicted I should have the good sense to go and get some tests, They're available, they don’t kurt, they’re pretty accurate and it’s stu-.¢ pid to. keep on fretting and gnawing at the possibility. .- But what if-they said yes? I don't. know: what I'd do, not right now. Md grief; how childish can an old ly get? the i vintage years _ of supportive material with him. 1 told him I had been worrying about ' . my own condition, forgetting faces, ".., Names, authors of books, origins of ‘poetry, dates. He reminded me that as we age ‘our brain cells shrivel up and it is ‘nothing unusual to forgot some ‘ things. Hard to swallow, maybe, but it happens | to us all, eventually. It was an interesting coincidence. _that my February copy of CARP had ‘just arrived. Do you know it? It’s.” te Canadian magazine for us elder- readers, comes out of ‘oronto but... ‘Muhsioer ee re disease, facluding é sort of overview of the three poss: ~”” ble types.-There’s one form that “The sixth largest * disease’ category § win Canada isnon-compliance, a f ch . people “dont eke their prescribed 1 medications ~in‘che right manner, Symptoms of this § “disease’: include: :not having the J “prescription: filled’'at all; taking too f - much of too little, missing doses, stop- ‘ping the medication too early, waking te roptiate combinations of drugs | lucing adverse drug reactions. You know you are geecing older when | uu have too much room in : your chouse and not enough room in your medicine’ cabinet. If you arent sure whether a medication is OK to keep, call our pharmacists. We can help, ‘ DAVIES PHARMACY 1401 St. Georges, North Van. 985-8771 “Myon type is called that dcesn’t fit family pattems Strikes people as early as 30, and is’. clearly traceable from one family. generation to the next. Then, to further confuse you, this me form tutas up only in the later. . éars, the 60s, 10s.: The most com- Alzheimer's cause? Take your. . \ choice, Abiininany in the brain t On March Ist, 1996: ‘sporadic AD”... ness sue has been blamed; environmental conditions have been blamed; they say something called apolipoprotein in one’s bload can be the culprit. But no one really has a clue how or why it strikes, and no one has a real treatment to offer to get rid of it. All old people get confused from time to time, and even a lot of young people forget place naines and titles of books. As a rule, what you're reaching for in your brain. will eventually pop out, probably in the middle of something quite unre- lated, With the dreaded Alzheimer's, victims forget forever, They forget their own names. They can get lost just going out their own front door on their own street. They suffer from rapid mood swings, sociable one minute, totally hostile the next. There is also a great likelihood ‘of real withdrawal, from people'as well as ordinary activities. Afflicted people also can misplace the most often-used articles, and put the elec- tric iron in the freezer and thiz clean -. | Jaundry in the tool-shed.’ As we talked about these things, Jim told me of having a dickens of a time the other day, trying to remem- “ber where he’ 'd put his watch. Tell you thi because he is a Nery, well-balanced man and has no ‘signs whatsoever of the dreaded-’..- AD. This was his way of assuring. me that every silly error. doth not assure the presence of Alzheimer’ s | One thing that often doesn’t change at all is respect for daily - courtesies. Odd, I’ve decided that “my own lapses are likely just old cage, cells falling off, not concentrat- ing as I need to do. ‘s But.I’ve given my husband the |. umber to call if he sees me putting “my watch i in the refrigerator ona’. : regular basis. THE cry OF THE WEEKEND WARRIOR We add a new code. Starting March Ist, BC TEL will be introducing a new toll-free code that will work exactly the same way as our 1-800 cade. So what does this mean to you? When you see any number that starts with 1-888, just like a 1-800 number, it means it’s absolutely free to call.