Because June is Alzheimer's and Brain Health Awareness, #JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress has made excerpts from the #memoir, which I wrote w/ #neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller, to honor my father, who died of #Early-Onset #Alzheimer's. I wrote it w/Bruce so he could explain to readers the clinical presentations I saw but didn't understand. Why my father was stricken, I still don't understand, but writing the book w/Bruce was our attempt to help others w/the science & the #grief.
"This book appealed to my split personality by
satisfying both my scientific and literary brain and
felt like I was reading two books in one." A generous, thoughtful review (pp. 61-63) by #Dr. Emma Durrant, clinical #scientist in #neurophysiology, of my #memoir, written with #UCSF#neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller. Here is a link to the entire volume published in The Journal of the Association of Neurophysiological Scientists.
#JohnsHopkins UP is offering a 30% discount w/the code HMOR24 on all its books, including mine, Finding the Right Words: A Story of #Literature, #Grief, and the #Brain, the #memoir I wrote w/#neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller. If you click on the book link & then click on the figures link, you'll see images of the brain that might be helpful. The glossary also includes terms that are good to know when going to the #doctor. Bruce & I hope you find it helpful.
I will be in #NYC at the #Alzheimer's Association to discuss "The Alzheimer's Journey: #Grief, #Guilt, #Memory, Love." It is a hybrid event (on line and in-person) that will take place on August 20th from 1 to 2 pm.
@eco_amandine. I am not a neurologist so can't answer that question. I'm sorry. There is, however, a disease under the dementia umbrella called Parkinsons disease dementia. This is an image in the memoir I wrote with #neurologist, Dr. Bruce Miller of UCSF. It's not much but maybe a little helpful? I am so sorry about your grandmother's brothers.
Here is a chart in my #memoir about my father's early-onset #Alzheimer's, written with #neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller, detailing the different kinds of #aphasia, where the "assault," as #doctors call it, first starts in the #brain, and the #diagnosis.
Happy birthday to #neurologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852 - 1934), here in front of Purkinje and granule cells from a pigeon, based on one of his own drawings! Cajal &Golgi won the Nobel in 1906, "in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system". He was as much of an artist as he was a scientist & his 100s of drawings are still used for teaching purposes.
🧵1/n
#sciart#linocut#printmaking#histstm#PurkinjeCell#neuroscience#MastoArt
It is an honor to participate in the #Kensington#RedwoodCity Open House for #Caregivers. The event will take place on May 2, and if you are in the neighborhood, please consider coming. My #memoir -- Finding the Right Words -- which I wrote with #UCSF#neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller, will be the departure point for the discussion, which will lay the groundwork for a supportive conversation about #caregiving, #grief, #love, and #dementia.
Honored to keep company with #neurologist, #DanielGibbs's #book about his own experience of #dementia. The tattoo in the title is the #brain bleed (aka #ARIA) that occurred while in #clinicaltrials related to anti-#amyloid drugs. He has no regrets & would do it all over again if it might advance brain science & help in the effort to #ENDALZ.
If you have read either my #memoir or his, please consider reviewing them on #amazon. In different ways, we both aim to inform readers & undercut #stigma.
#neurologist Jeffrey Cummings said this about the #memoir I wrote with #Dr.BruceMiller: "A book that brings humanity and science together is rare, but Finding the Right Words achieves this seamlessly and elegantly. Biography, diagnosis, history of behavioral neurology, and a daughter's love converge to produce a deep understanding of how brain disease affects personhood. Read this book to understand how your brain creates your self."
Since word-finding (and losing words) is front of mind for many people, I would like to draw your attention to the #memoir I wrote with #UCSF#neurologist, Dr. Bruce Miller. It's called Finding The Right Words: A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain, and it is about my father's #early-onset #Alzheimer's. #Dr.Miller explains the #neurology behind the manifestations of the #disease that I describe. Loss of words was one of my father's first symptoms.
Splendidly efficient letter to the editor of the Washington Post criticizing their ruinously misdirected Trump coverage. Pass it on. #ThePressIsTheProblem
@mastodonmigration@shoq@dangillmor@jayrosen_nyu. I'm so glad you think so! I've been waiting for a #neurologist, #psychologist -- someone whose area of expertise is word-finding and language difficulties -- to make just these points. Thank you for boosting. I see you have a lot of followers and hopefully many will read this piece.
Because today is the 1st #WorldLewyBodyDementia day, I'm sharing a page from the informative & whimsical glossary from my memoir written w/#neurologist, #Dr.BruceMiller. Our goal is to give readers, #caregivers, persons with #dementia, a greater understanding of the diseases of dementia. Providing definitions of terms used by #doctors was especially important to me (not an MD) to include in the book b/c when my dad got sick, we didn't know any of this & it would have helped.
Although I am not a neurologist, I think a lot about the #variants of #PrimaryProgressiveAphasia. I wrote a #memoir about my father's #early-onset #Alzheimer's with #neurologist, #Dr.BruceMiller of #UCSF's #MemoryAndAgingCenter. It explains where in the #brain the initial assault happens and helps us understand why people can't find the right words and/or garble them and/or repeat them. After many years, I learned that my father had the #logopenic variant.
I am honored to be presenting my work on #FindingtheRightWords in UCLA's Americanist Research Colloquium. I wrote this #memoir w/#neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller about my father's early-onset #Alzheimer's. He became ill when I was a #graduate student in the #Berkeley#English dept. so speaking about this to grad students (& faculty) in the English dept.@ #UCLA is especially meaningful. I'll share what I know now about #dementia & #grief & what I wish I knew then.
#Neurologist Ibrahim Imam reads lots of books about #medicine, esp. the #brain, and reviews them on #TheDoctor'sBookshelf. He wrote a wonderful review of my #memoir, #FindingTheRightWords & named it one "the most incredibly moving patient memoirs about the brain." Turns out the review was one of the most read of 2023. Below are links to the original review, to the list of #memoirs, & to 2023's most-read reviews.
This is an extremely difficult moment. My father may not have known me as his early-onset #Alzheimers worsened but I always knew he loved me. That understanding sometimes held me together. If this moment speaks to you, here are two excellent books about #dementia: #DashaKiper's Travelers to Unimaginable Lands and #SandeepJauhar My Father's Brain. I also honored my father with a #memoir that I wrote with #neurologist, Dr. Bruce Miller.
It's #AlzheimersAwarenessMonth. When my father was diagnosed in the 80s in his mid-50s, the different kinds of #dementia & #Alzheimers weren't known. When I met #neurologist#BruceMiller, he explained that the real diagnosis was #earlyonset Alzheimer's w/the #logopenic variant (word-finding). The #diagnosis came late (death had already come) but what a relief to have the words & a deeper understanding of what turned my father's life, mine, & my family's inside out.
Last month, I had the honor of speaking at Hawai'i's Behavioral Health #ECHO event. Here is a link to our discussion of the memoir I wrote with #UCSF#neurologist, Dr. Bruce Miller, #Finding the Right Words. We talked about #caregiving, #grief, the power of precision #diagnosis, and the value of #narrativemedicine.
On #WorldAlzheimer'sDay, I want to thank #BruceMiller, #neurologist extraordinaire, for listening w/such #empathy to stories about my father, Jerry, so he could get to know him thru my memories & write #FindingTheRightWords w/me. What a gift he gave me - helping me honor my dad in the way I needed to - & the world. His knowledge of #dementia & ability to communicate it in a way that we can all understand is invaluable. Here is a photo of my dad laughing at his dad, my pop, who is being silly.