Since language acquisition and fluency is on my #brain (all of the videos of #Trump's attempts at speech are firing lots of my own cylinders!), here is another image of the brain from #FindingTheRightWords. Thank you to the amazing #CarolinePrioleau of #UCSF for this beautiful and helpful drawing.
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.
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.
#FindingTheRightWords turns 2 today. Here I am w/my co-author #Dr.BruceMiller, a #doctor whose #empathy, #knowledge, and #generosity knows no bounds. That my father died of #early-onset #Alzheimer's couldn't be changed, but writing the #memoir w/ Bruce changed me, helping to put that experience of profound fragmentation (my father's; mine) into something a little more whole. W/so much gratitude to Bruce and the many #neurologists working to #EndAlz always and esp. during #worldalzheimersmonth
#FindingTheRightWords turns 2 today. Here I am w/my co-author #Dr.BruceMiller, a #doctor whose #empathy, #knowledge, and #generosity knows no bounds. That my father died of #early-onset #Alzheimer's couldn't be changed, but writing the #memoir w/ Bruce changed me, helping to put that experience of profound fragmentation (my father's; mine) into something a little more whole. W/so much gratitude to Bruce and the many #neurologists working to #EndAlz always and esp. during #WorldAlzheimer'sMonth.