I had the great gift of sitting in on a luncheon at The Mayo Clinic today learning about some of the cutting edge advancements in cancer research and therapies happening there. I worked hard to engage all of my brain cells to try and drink in from the firehose of information that was flying towards me at warp speed and going waaaaay over my head. As I attempted to digest this right down to the molecular level, three things stuck out in my head that I haven’t been able to shake all afternoon:#1: I am so, so, so very glad I changed to different classes in high school and never took any AP sciences! #2: As I listened, so much of it was so far above my pay grade that I found myself resorting to trying to pick out words here and there that sounded familiar. It was truly like listening to someone speak a foreign language much of the time. So intimidating. I was quiet and doing my best to listen intently, and so very grateful there wasn’t going to be a test, or that anyone was going to call on me! I couldn’t help but wonder if this is what communication is like at times to those living with dementia as the words start to slip away from them. What do they hear? And how much gets processed properly? And how frustrated do they get when they can’t make sense of what is being said or asked? My empathy meter went in the red thinking of all the times I should have done a better job taking this into consideration. (I’ve shared before that Teepa Snow has FANTASTIC info on communication and dementia in this video https://youtu.be/0BlZF_4EKp4)#3: The gentleman that was presenting this is a brilliant research doctor and his knowledge of all areas of the work he is doing is jaw-dropping. As I sat there today, trying diligently to find words in his presentation that had fewer than 5 syllables or sounded vaguely familiar, I got sidetracked by the vision of a giant pink eraser slowly starting to erase his head. What would happen to the volumes of information that have been the basis for years of research and knowledge that only his brain contains in full detail?I read once that “every time an older person dies, it’s as if a library burns down.” When it comes to Alzheimer’s diagnoses, this is happening at a rapid rate. And it’s not just older people who have whole libraries of information that are being lost in this way.Even though it was a presentation about cancer research and treatment, I left there all the more fired up and inspired to continue this fight that has taken so many libraries from us…????
