DAPHNE, Ala.— Ann Pearson watched as her mother underwent a colon-cancer treatment in 2002. After surgery, she thought only of her mother’s immediate health; how she would care for Mom until she was her old self again.

But the surgery may have been the catalyst of a sharp decline in her mother’s mental functioning.

“I noticed a change of my mama when she came out of the surgery,” Pearson recalled. “I believe it was the anesthesia.”

Ginger Brown—John McClure Snook Regional Center program director—said she could not comment on common misconceptions or widely held myths about the illness, but she did address a perceived misunderstanding about Alzheimer's that can make an uninformed stranger to the disease uncomfortable.

"A pattern is that people don't understand the disease," Brown said. "A lot of people think that patients are doing these behaviors on purpose. People don't understand it."

Pearson’s mother, Lou Avery, had an allergic reaction to the medication she received while hospitalized.

“She was seeing spiders on the wall,” Pearson said. “She was scared to death.”

Lou’s decline lasted about a year, according to Pearson.

“Before the surgery, she was vibrant, alert, capable, driven, nurturing, caring and, most importantly, loving,” Pearson said.

Avery had developed the beginning phase of Alzheimer’s disease, and it was dramatically affecting her personality.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, irreversible neurological disorder. Most victims are older than 65, but it can strike in the 40s and 50s. Symptoms include gradual memory loss, impairment of judgment, disorientation, personality change, difficulty in learning and loss of language skills. No cure is known.

Pearson relied on her brother, Houston Avery, to help shoulder caregiving responsibilities for their mother; Lou went to live with her son in Dothan shortly after the surgery.

Over the past six years, Lou changed.

“She has gradually lost her hold of reality,” Pearson said. “It has taken the form of paranoia, anger, mistrust, frustration and fear.

“She would have my brother sit in her apartment and watch it so she could go out,” she said. “It was pretty much a nightmare for my

brother but he never complained.

“She was locking the doors and wouldn’t let the cleaning people in.”

Pearson watched her mother fall into a pattern of losing things amid increasing frustration.

“She would constantly lose everything, especially her purse,” Pearson said.

The final straw was when Lou’s personal grooming diminished.

Pearson came to a hard decision in having her mother admitted to a memory care facility.

“I had to be firm with my mom,” Pearson said. “I love you. I want the best for you.” Her mother needed not only care for the debilitating

disease but also socialization that comes from being around people her age with similar conditions, Pearson had reasoned.

So Lou moved to Carroll Place, an assisted-living facility in Fairhope, and later, took residence at John McClure Snook Regional Center in Daphne.

“Routine is good,” Pearson said. “A small environment is good. That allows the residents to feel safe.”

In addition to a safe haven, such facilities provide recreational opportunities, such as last year’s “A Million Thanks” project, a national initiative to show troops how much they’re appreciated. Lou designed one of such cards, colorfully adorned with tissue paper strips, according to a Mercy Medical spokesperson.

Houston comes to town once a month to help care for Lou; sister and bother take her out to eat and shopping and to get her hair done. Sometimes, Pearson and Lou will sit on the front porch of the Snook Center; seeing the building’s façade helps with her

mother’s disorientation.

“I’ll say, ‘Mama, this is where you live,’” Pearson said.

Pearson—director of Caring Ministries, an outreach of Fairhope United Methodist Church—said she has relied on faith to help her

cope with Lou’s declining health.

“Prayer is the bedrock of how I’m guided,” she said.

She’s not alone.

“Other people have prayed for me,” she said. ‘My prayer partners pray for me every day.”

Laughter is another device that Pearson finds helpful.

Pearson laughed when she recalled an instance when her mother had used a writing pen as lipstick.

“You don’t argue with a dementia patient,” Pearson said.

Training is essential for Pearson’s role as a caregiver.

“Training is necessary,” she said. “If you’re their caregiver, you’ve got to make good decisions.”

Lou—who’s been physically and mentally declining for nearly five years—has level-one Alzheimer’s, so family members aren’t strangers.

“She has trouble with short-term memory; specifically names and spans of time,” Pearson said. “But my mother still knows who I am.”

Still, dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s symptoms has been trying for Pearson.

But the experience has offered her perspective.

“I’ve had to learn to love my mama as a new person,” Pearson said.

“God’s blessed with me with perspective.”

Fast Facts

<5.2 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease; it’s estimated that one in three will face this disease in an older relative, according to the National Institute of Health.

One year later, Reagan designated November as National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.

Source: The Alzheimer’s Association

Warning signs

Risk factors

The likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s doubles every five years after age 65. After age 85, the risk is nearly 50 percent.

The risk increases if more than one family member has the disease.

Apolipoprotein E-e4 (APOE-e4)—found in the bloodstream—is the inherited, primary cause of disease development, although it does not always manifest and may lay dormant throughout a lifetime.

Researchers have found rare “deterministic” genes that directly cause Alzheimer’s in a few hundred extended families worldwide.

When the illness is caused by deterministic genes, it is called “familial Alzheimer’s disease.” True familial Alzheimer’s accounts for less than 5 percent of cases.

Source: The Alzheimer’s Association

Help is available

Project Lifesaver—a police-monitored program that can assist in caring for Alzheimer’s patients—is designed to locate registered individuals if they wander. In case of a lost individual, law enforcement is notified and a search-and-rescue team will work in finding the person.

To enroll in Project Lifesaver, call Mercy Medical’s John McClure Snook Regional Center at 625-2555.

The Alzheimer’s Association’s 24/7 helpline—at 1-800-272-3900—is available to anyone who is affected by the disease including: people with memory loss, caregivers, health care professionals and the public.