Dear Clueless: A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's Caregiving

by Sandra Savell

At the time this book was written, the youngest person recorded with Alzheimer’s Disease was 28 years old. Since I learned about Alzheimer’s with my maternal grandmother suffering from and succumbing to the disease in the 1980’s, the ages of Alzheimer’s patients have been steadily becoming younger and younger. In my mother’s memory care unit was an educator who died of early onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 53. There is a new diagnosis of Alzheimer’s every 67 seconds and it is estimated that one in every three people in the United States will have Alzheimer’s by the age of 85. This disease lasts from 2 - 25 years. If this trend continues then every family in this country will be visited by Alzheimer’s and the affects on caregivers will also affect this nation. This book is both a personal story of a decade-long journey of caregiving as well as a call to arms for funding and research of this terminal disease.

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2015

About the author

I began my work career as a mortgage banker in Palm Beach County, FL. I did not choose that path but began as a receptionist and worked my way up to a Production Manager. In 1993 I moved to Washington DC and went to work for an exclusive financial management firm. But I was tired of helping rich people keep their money and was drawn to helping people in pain. I attended the Potomac Massage Training Institute and graduated in 1998 and became nationally certified. I had my own massage business until moving to SC in 2006. It was then that I became an Alzheimer's caregiver for my Mom. I did massage and held down part time jobs during my caregiving years. Mom passed November of 2010 and due to auto-immune disease, I retired from massage therapy last year and got serious about writing "Dear Clueless...." My last career of my lifetime will be author/writer.

Reviews

[M.C. Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional read for those giving care to parents with dementia or Alzheimer's.

[Ronni Lea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Clueless: A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's Caregiving, by Sandra Savell was a such a good and easy read that I read it in two days.

I have not experienced Alzheimer's Caregiving first hand, but I have known friends and family who have. I decided to read this book because Alzheimer's Disease runs in my family, as well as my Husband's family. It is a real fear for our future as well as our loved one's futures. This is the first book I have read on the subject, but after doing so I plan to read up on it more. This book gave me "the push". I always feared that books on the subject would be more like Medical books with a bunch of language that I did not understand. "Dear Clueless" is NOT this type of book. It is very personal and personable and very much able to describe things in layman's terms.

The Author is very honest and personally knowledgeable. I find this to be a reprieve from books that are written by people that never dealt with something like this first hand. In any kind of reference or learning book.

Sandra Savell brought you into her world and you get a very up front and personal view on what her and her Mother went through during this time.

One part that really affected me was "Making Friends and Influencing Staff" this part just broke my heart. For anyone who reads it, I hope it touches them as well.

This book made me laugh, cry and really opened my eyes about things that may be in my future.

It also helped me to start to forgive myself in other areas of my life with loss and grief that has nothing to do with Alzheimer's. We are all human and nobody is perfect and that is okay.

I urge anyone to read this book. Whether or not Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia of any form is in your past, your present, your future, or not at all. Maybe it is in a family member's, a friend's, or a neighbor's life, so that you too can understand what someone else may be going through.

I hope that anyone who reads this, or any book on the subject, realizes how much more research needs to be done on this Disease. As Mrs. Savell states time and again, this disease is fatal. There is no cure for it right now, and unless we go about researching it much, much more and more seriously, then it is going to continue to kill off those people that we love most. Don't think that this Disease will never affect you or your family. It will it is only a matter of time, unless we start doing something more about it.