Personal Blog #46 … Time to Say Goodbye … 6/28/25

This will be my last Personal Blog column.  Were Clare to have lived, we would have celebrated our 58^th wedding anniversary this month.  Unfortunately, we were 2 months shy of our 48^th when Clare died in April, 2016.

I’ve written a lot about AD.  I’ve had more than 100 articles published in medical journals, caregiver magazines, and in major newspapers.  I’ve also written and posted a lot of Personal Blog columns on this site.

Through my writing I had hoped to accomplish several goals …

-       increase public awareness of AD

-       stimulate greater federal funding for AD research

-       improve the ways doctors diagnose and treat people with AD and their caregivers

-       increase awareness of AD caregiver issues among health care professionals and leaders of assisted living and nursing home facilities

-       improve the lives of AD caregivers.

At this point in my life, I don’t think my writing can contribute more to further those goals.  In recent years I have remained active in efforts to improve the lives of those with AD and their caregivers by serving on national grant projects and pharmaceutical caregiver panels hoping to improve treatment of AD patients in hospital emergency rooms and to bring more effective treatments to market.  I have made presentations to health care professionals, medical students, and other AD caregivers.  I will remain available to offer suggestions and help to anyone who contacts me, but I think that my days of writing are now behind me. 

Some final words …

For health care professionals, please urge your AD patients and their caregivers to join local support groups!

For those with AD and for AD caregivers, find a good support group. If you attend one and find it lacking, don’t give up … try another group.  And try to find a “homogeneous” group … a group of those in a situation similar to the one you are in.

I learned so much about being a better caregiver in my support group.  And I leaned on members of that group for so much emotional support.  Keep on fighting the good fight.  Hopefully, in time, there will be effective medications or treatments to improve the lives of those with AD and their caregivers.  Hopefully, in time, there will be effective preventative measures … or a cure.

I will maintain this website for as long as possible so anyone can come to read copies of my published articles and all of my Personal Blogs.  And I will continue to respond to emails sent to me at acvann@optonline.net.