Drug that halts Alzheimers, removes amyloid plaques on the horizon

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I have a friend with early onset Alzheimer's. She's 51, and in the year or so that I've known her,

the decline has been heartbreaking.

The first time I met her she was quite open about her situation. After a few months she became more guarded, and now she can barely function in public.

She (along with her mother who is now her primary care-taker) was at an Academy Awards watch party a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, all there knew of her situation, so we simply pitched in. She can't find her way to the bathroom. She needs to be reminded which chair is hers. It's heartbreaking, and worse yet, I didn't know her at her best. I wish I had.

The worst part of this specific story is that her only son is a senior in high school, although I gather he rarely goes to school. He's losing his mother at a most vulnerable time in his own life.

Alzheimer's is a devastating disease. Maybe sometime in the future there will be a vaccine that will inoculate people from ever getting it. I hope so.

Meanwhile, on a slightly more cheerful note, I've told my sons that if I become totally senile, to please put me in a home that has cats, because I doubt I will ever be so out of it that I won't want to be around cats. When I was three years old (and trust me, I remember some of this) I was dragging stray cats home. My mother, god bless her, hated cats, and she'd allow the stray to stay for about a day and then would let it go. I have, over the years, owned various cats. At the moment I have none, but someday I will. Right now I'm doing a lot of travelling and it would be totally irresponsible to have one. But someday, someday. . . .