Book contents
- A Tattoo on My Brain
- Reviews
- A Tattoo on My Brain
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Prologue
- 1 Beacon Rock
- 2 Forewarned and Forearmed
- 3 The Smell of Baking Bread
- 4 Sneak Preview
- 5 A Stubborn Puzzle
- 6 The Locked Box and the Family Tree
- 7 The Measure of Memory
- 8 Orcas Nonetheless
- 9 My Brain, My Self
- 10 The Reveal
- 11 Cognitive Reserve and Resiliency: Brain Cells in the Bank
- 12 My Experimental Life
- 13 When ARIA Is More than an Operatic Solo
- 14 My Experiential Life: Living with Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease
- 15 Madeleines, Music and African Doves
- 16 It’s Only Scary If You Look Down
- 17 Beyond DNA: Family History Reconsidered
- 18 News at 5: Retired Neurologist Battles Alzheimer’s
- 19 The Forest, the Trees and the Ground Beneath My Feet
- 20 What’s in a Name? Alzheimer’s Reimagined
- 21 A Meaningful Outcome
- Epilogue: The Writing Life
- Epilogue: The Writing Life, Act II
- Appendix:
- Resources
- Index
2 - Forewarned and Forearmed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2022
- A Tattoo on My Brain
- Reviews
- A Tattoo on My Brain
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Prologue
- 1 Beacon Rock
- 2 Forewarned and Forearmed
- 3 The Smell of Baking Bread
- 4 Sneak Preview
- 5 A Stubborn Puzzle
- 6 The Locked Box and the Family Tree
- 7 The Measure of Memory
- 8 Orcas Nonetheless
- 9 My Brain, My Self
- 10 The Reveal
- 11 Cognitive Reserve and Resiliency: Brain Cells in the Bank
- 12 My Experimental Life
- 13 When ARIA Is More than an Operatic Solo
- 14 My Experiential Life: Living with Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease
- 15 Madeleines, Music and African Doves
- 16 It’s Only Scary If You Look Down
- 17 Beyond DNA: Family History Reconsidered
- 18 News at 5: Retired Neurologist Battles Alzheimer’s
- 19 The Forest, the Trees and the Ground Beneath My Feet
- 20 What’s in a Name? Alzheimer’s Reimagined
- 21 A Meaningful Outcome
- Epilogue: The Writing Life
- Epilogue: The Writing Life, Act II
- Appendix:
- Resources
- Index
Summary
It’s not as if I don’t know what’s in store at the far end of Alzheimer’s. For nearly thirty years, most of the Alzheimer’s patients I saw in my practice were already in moderate to advanced stages of the disease when their doctors referred them to me.
One patient – I’ll call her M. – enters my thoughts now as vividly as the moment she arrived for her appointment. M. was in her eighties, a little unsteady on her feet, so I walked her into my office. Her daughter, with whom she lived, followed closely behind. The daughter had brought her mother to see me because M. had been getting increasingly forgetful, repeating herself all the time. She had been living by herself until recently, but her daughter realized that M. couldn’t safely live independently anymore. Her primary care doctor had already ordered a brain MRI scan that showed brain atrophy but no strokes or tumors.
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- Information
- A Tattoo on my BrainA Neurologist's Personal Battle against Alzheimer's Disease, pp. 19 - 23Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023