O'Connor Goes Public With Private Ordeal

Posted May 15, 2008, 8:35 am in Conditions & Diseases by Growing Bolder

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about her husband's Alzheimer's.� O'Connor told senators that the disease takes a "staggering toll" on families and said, "our nation is certainly ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease."

The first woman on the Supreme Court, O'Connor addressed the Special Committee on Aging and as she referred to her "beloved husband," John, and how he is "not in very good shape," her voice cracked.

O'Connor pleaded for a public and private expansion of Alzheimer's research calling for speedier clinical trials of Alzheimer treatments and development of new treatment options. "Living with this disease has been sad and difficult for my entire family," O'Connor wrote in her prepared testimony. "The disease begins quietly, with memory difficulties that gradually become more serious and much more frightening with each passing year. Then, what follows is confusion ... impaired judgment ... trouble expressing even the simplest thoughts .... disorientation ... and socially inappropriate behavior."

O'Connor, now 78, retired in January 2006 to care for her husband John who was diagnosed with the condition and gradually getting worse. "You may remember that in the early days of my husband's illness, I often took him to court with me because he could not be left alone," O'Connor told the senators. "Sadly, these life-changing decisions are simply part of caring for someone with Alzheimer's," she said.
Committee Chairman Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., opened the session by saying almost 10 million Americans are caring for a person with Alzheimer's or other dementia.

An estimated 5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer's and almost 10 million Americans are caring for an Alzheimer's patient. As the U.S. population continues to age, more and more cases of Alzheimer's cases are going to be diagnosed. Along with an increased number of Alzheimer's disease patients will come an increasing price tag that is estimated to top the 1 trillion mark by 2050.

"I'm getting pretty close to 80, so that gets my attention," O'Connor said. "I think a lot of people will be concerned."

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Ann
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Posted 10:23 pm May 15th, 2008
I know first hand what Justice O'Conner is talking about. My dad had Alzheimer's. I cared for him at home until it just got to the point he had to be put in an Alzheimer's care unit for his own safety. It was like we woke up one day and he had Alzheimer's. He didn't have it but about 3 or 4 years before he passed away in 1992 at 70 years old.

It was sad to see him change in such a short period of time from the dad and grandfather we knew to child like. I thought, I wonder if this is what he was like as a child. He would skip down the halls of the nursing home and have little spats with the other residents. Before his Alzheimer's he was just so happy go lucky.

I'd like to share a few little things he did after the onset of Alzheimer's. We always said, if it were not for the funny little things he did from time to time, just how we could have ever made it through that time in our life. Once we were watching a football game and he jumped up out of the rocker he always sat in and headed out the backdoor and I asked him where he was going. He said he was going out back to get the ball that guy just threw out in the field. Another time we were watching TV and Joan Lunden was on GMA and he got up and stood on the side of the TV and I ask what he was doing. He said he had to wipe his nose and he didn't want her to see him.

One day I heard his bedroom door close so I looked down the hall to see where he was going. He had on his hat, shirt, socks and shoes. I asked him hadn't he forgotten something as I saw his little bare bottom just a shinning.

He was always getting outside and I was afraid of him getting hit by a car because we lived next to the East-West Expressway in Orlando. He had gotten out of the house once without my knowledge and I was in a panic looking for him. I finally saw him on the other side of the fence along side the Expressway and I about panicked. I had to get in the car, pay the toll to get on the Expressway to get him. After that I put locks on all the doors and kept the key with me at all times. Well wouldn't you know it, he opened a window and climbed out. That was when I started looking for a nice nursing home with an Alzheimer's unit. I was afraid he would get up in the middle of the night and get out.

There are several other stories I could share, but these are the ones I think of first that bring a smile to my face whenever I hear the word Alzheimer's.