Miracle Pill
By: Hubert Crowell
I know you have seen those pharmaceutical adds on TV, I would like to tell you about one I call my Miracle Pill.
A few years ago I began to notice a slow down in my mental processing. One of my hobbies is caving and designing software to map the caves that I explore. Programming is a challenge for me, working out all the details of creating as much cave detail from as little data as possible. I had to put the programming aside because I could not work out the problems.
I also noticed a slight problem of short term memory, but thought nothing of it. I have always had trouble remembering names and we all forget where we put things. But the programming problem bothered me as I had always been able to figure it out in the past.
I decided to ask my doctor about it. My mother had Alzheimer's so the possibility was there. The doctor told me that there was an easy test that I could take and he would send the nurse right in. The test was verbal and only took a few minutes. I knew that I had failed the test even before the doctor returned.
The good news was that at this early stage I could take ARICEPT and it would help. He told me that eventually the effects of the drug would no longer help, but by that time hopefully there would other drugs available. He warned me of the some of the side effects, most notable that it caused a person to dream. I have been taking the pill for over two years now and have wonderful dreams almost every night!
I try to exercise my mind by playing Sudoku, writing and music. I even rented a Violin for three months to see if I could play some simple tunes and I also have a Trumpet that I blow until my lip gives out. I think that I will purchase a cheap Violin and keep it up.
After about a year of taking ARICEPT I went back to my programming challenge and was able to work out most of the problems that were bothering me. I now feel good about the software and plan to make more improvements. Ihave also accepted a part time job that also keeps me busy.
The dreams are starting to slow down some now, I used to wake up not knowing if they were real and sometimes I would even have a dream within a dream, last night I had a western with a big shoot out with the good guy winning and after recovering from his wounds even serving pancakes for breakfast!
I have heard the saying that if you don't use it you loose it, and I believe that there is a lot of truth there. The years ahead will no doubt be a challenge, but I have been blessed in so many ways and one of the blessing I have is to be living in a time when so many breakthroughs are taking place.
I would like to thank the pharmaceutical companies for all the miracle pills they develop.
5 million Americans have Alzheimer's.
360,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year.
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