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Title: Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return
ISBN: 0446580929
Author:
Mary Ellen Geist
Publicate Date: 2008-08-13
Publish: 2008-08-13
List Price: $23.99
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $10.50
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $10.88
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.31
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Learn About Alzheimers From A Loving Care Giver
This nonfiction book is about a daughter who quits her job to move back home to help her mother care for her father who has Alzheimers. Reading this is an enjoyable way to learn about Alzheimers, what to expect and how to deal with it. It gives many resources for support for those who have Alzheimers and their caregivers. I found it very interesting that the dad responded to music and could remember all the words to songs but couldn't remember the right name of objects or people. He couldn't read a book or newspaper, but he could read words written on a music staff such as song lyrics. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a relationship with someone with Alzheimers or who just wants to learn more about this disease.
This daughter's role as caregiver to her father was similar to my experience in caring for my dad, although fortunately mine did not have Alzheimers. The book I wrote,My Funny Dad, Harry, shares my experience of being my aging dad's primary caregiver. He had diabetes and was practically deaf. I could certainly relate to what she was going through.
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2: A Daughter's Love Story
What a wonderful book about Mary Ellen Geist who gives up her high paying job as a reporter, her lifestyle and all she knows to move back with her mom to take care of her dad who has Alzheimers. This book has it all--humor, sadness, touching moments. You get into it quickly and at points it is hard to put down. I enjoyed this this book! I'd give it 10 stars if I could!
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3: Touching, Thoughtful, and Helpful
Hope. Grief. Frustration. Exhaustion. Delight. Denial. Mary Ellen Geist touches on all these emotions and many more in her account of dealing with her father's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She put her career and life on hold and returned to her childhood home in Michigan to help her parents. In the Foreword Dr. Oliver Sacks points out that Geist "has written eloquently of a whole family living with dementia." This is indeed the whole family's story. Geist gently guides readers into the labyrinth of daily life in the household.
The book is emotional but also full of information. Stories of other caregivers are woven into the narrative. Facts and figures about the disease and caregivers (71% are women) are provided. Particular attention is devoted to caregivers. All too often caregivers take on too much and compromise their own health.
One chapter that surprised me was about the hospital experience. Geist's father (Woody) was admitted for orthopedic surgery, a double knee replacement. He was in the hospital for two weeks. The hospital personnel were not prepared to deal with a Alzheimer's patient; I was shocked. This chapter, "Hospital Hell and Healing," should be read by any caregiver who will have an Alzheimer's patient in the hospital. Geist offers a list of suggestions that will be helpful.
Despite a cascading loss of mental acuity, Woody never lost his musical abilities. He remembered the words and melodies to songs learned long ago. Music remained in tact in Woody's brain. As Sacks notes, "he seemed to be completely present, to come together and bypass his dementia (though as soon as the singing ended, the dementia was evident again)."
Anyone caring for a person with dementia will find information and validation in this book. There are resources listed and a bibliography. Most importantly Geist brings her journalist's instincts to bear on this incredibly difficult and stressful situation. She honestly discusses personal difficulties and offers concrete suggestions for coping.
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4: An Emotional Journey with Alzheimer's
Mary Ellen Geist left a stellar career as a radio broadcaster to move home and help her mother take care of her father, Woody, a sufferer of Alzheimer's. She did not know, could not know what she was in for.
Like so many daughters who move home to cope with this devastating disease, Geist experienced moments of sweetness, hours of frustration, days of pain as she watched her father slip further and further away. Her dreams of rescuing her mother from the pain of a spouse with Alzheimer's faded away to a more realistic view of the disease and the problems that inevitably accompany it. Their world, once expansive, contracted as friends slipped away. This is how it is living with Alzheimer's.
Geist has created a fine volume. Her writing shines and is even lyrical at times. Her pain is clear; the gifts this disease brought her also clear. Hers is a book to make the tears flow, and mine did as I recalled my own father's descent into darkness.
If there ever were a reason to make every possible effort to avoid Alzheimer's or any other the other dementias associated with aging, Geist provides it. Read it. Weep and laugh with her.
Godspeed Woody. Godspeed Mary Ellen. Well done.
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5: The Realities of Alzheimer's
As lifespans lengthen, it's an unfortunate reality that more and more of us are likely to encounter the tragedy of Alzheimer's Disease. In "Measure of the Heart," ambitious, successful California and New York radio news anchor and reporter Mary Ellen Geist tells of leaving her career to help her mother care for her father as he declines in the clutches of this terrible affliction.
Both an exlanation of Alzheimers and a personal caregiver's memoir, this book explores the tragic effects of the disease on the vctim and his family. As the disease progresses, the author learns to let herself be guided by her heart rather than by the pressures of her demanding career.
This very personal story helps to explain the devotion of Woody Geist's wife, daughters, and other family members to this nice, kind, cheerful former CEO who loves to play tennis and to sing, activities he is able to continue long after the disease strikes. The family's selfless devotion and refusal to put Woody into a care facility seem puzzling as the disease progresses, and yet their extraordinary love is admirable.
In addition to telling the victim's and caregivers' stories, this book explores and lists various resources: helpful organizations, publications, and web sites devoted to Alzheimer's and those dealing with it. The book makes fascination reading for anyone who has ever wondered about the disease or marveled at the dedication of those dealing with its victims. For anyone faced with an Alzheimer's diagnosis in the famiy, it should be required reading.
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