Alzheimer's Story By Barry Petersen Summary

In the book Jan’s Story by Barry Petersen, is a love story about how Alzheimer's disease stole his wife away. He gives an insight on her job as a an newscaster and how news was reported in places such as Moscow, Bosnia, Beijing, Africa, Baghdad, Tokyo and much more. At the age of 40 she started to slowly show signs and at the age of 55 it was confirmed that it was Alzheimer's. Once that was known, my heart sank, my first reaction was of course, these lovers have to fight this and she will win this battle. It was such a wild thought, to me that even when you say in your vows that it is death due us part but then have an expiration date. And before reading this and taking this class, I actually did not know much about the disease so this was

all enlightening to me. The book starts out with their love life, in ways such as raising his two daughters, them traveling, adapting to different cultures with things such as art and food but then you see it shift into signs such as the little symptoms that had shown she had it, which seemed so frightening to me but also sad to see the precious memories that will slip away. It discusses the sacrifices he had to make such as taking care of Jan, almost losing his job, getting a caretaker and lastly losing his sanity.

It was surprising to see Jan switch into a completely different person and hard to grasp how Barry could handle it, I mean things such as going to the grocery store she turned angry which neurologists described as her being fearful and with fear comes not wanting to try new things. Jan and Barry were such a happy couple and Alzheimer's stole it.
The symptoms started showing when she would forget things that happened such as making food, or reading messages on her computer such as alert thinking something was wrong, stopped wanting to see her friends and she would spend more time at home. However, at first Barry and her found themselves in denial about this whole thing and the disease itself. He even describes how she would make sentences with him and the sentence would have all the words but it was out of order. She almost could not get the concept of time, at night she would do odd things such as wear outwear clothing rather than pajamas and go to make something but then change her mind and switch tasks. Jan was even doing things such as forgetting people’s names and describing them by how they look rather. She was misplacing items or buying things and forgetting that she did, like the DVD player, and Barry’s daughter was frightened because they just got it thirty minutes before. I mean it is the everyday little things that I do, that I take for granite and she is struggling with them. During the middle stages, you see her mood shift and her anger build and forgetfulness which ended up Barry deciding to get a caregiver.
As for being a caregiver for Alzheimer's, I learned how hard it is because this disease has no cure, people get angry and frustrated, there's no training and it's difficult to cope.

This unforgettable fact was stated how “ten million people are unpaid caregivers for those five million with Alzheimer's.” However due to fundraising Alzheimer’s Association earned 94 billion and yet it seems this disease will spread to 16 million by 2050, so that’s 50 million people that will get this disease (Peterson,43). With that being said, the struggles for caregivers can be the anger, denial,depression, lack of emotion or conversation, social withdrawal, irritability, and more importantly, just overall, exhausting on both of you. Barry, did his best for such a long time with a caregiver until he had to put her in assisted living home. At first, this was hard for Barry and people but what Jan’s friends and family did not realize is the struggles Barry and Diane were facing, outsiders only see the Jan that they remember not what the disease has turned her

into.
The twist in the story was to see when Barry decided to start dating again when Jan is in the home. Jan’s mother, gave Barry the permission to start over with what he wants to happen in his next life. However, some friends and family were happy for Barry and others assumed that this meant he never really loved Jan and you abandoned her. I personally, think that this was more to do with how much they loved Jan and were fearful of how much her life is now changed and different, how much she is processed in a different way. Jan is always someone in his heart but he needed love and hope in his life. Jan also wanted to see Barry, be happy and with care and love, she never wanted anyone to go through agony. Some days in the home, she would not even remember Barry and people did not see Jan in the early, middle and late stage of this disease like how he did. It was heartbreaking, reading her getting abdominal issues ending up going to the hospital and having such fear by not knowing what is around you, who you are, and having IV’s in you which she just kept pulling out. After this, things took a downward spiral in which she passes but Barry, then had one more job left after this which was remembering the good times they had. After reading this, Alzheimer's and Dementia have changed due to the two biggest facts, that it is not just from aging and getting old, but also that you should not just leave the person alone. If you or a family member have it, I would recommended in the early stages, communicating about it, planning finances and insurances, and trying to figure out ways to remember things just as notes, videos, or even letters and pictures. Overall, Barry did not get to have that talk so for someone like him, even when it does not always feel like we did the right thing later just remember that in that moment you did it because it felt right to you then. Letting go of someone is not always giving up, but it is finding the acceptance in your heart that you cannot change the uncontrollable.