Need your help

This spring when I went to the Political Action Summit in Washington DC one of the things we were asking our congressional representatives was to support the National Alzheimer's Project Act. This Act would fund an office being set up within the Office of Health and Human Services to be responsible for coming up with a Plan to fight Alzheimer's and an interagency Advisory Council on Alzheimer's research and Treatment. Many countries already have an office such as this to coordinate the effects of Alzheimer's disease in their respective countries. We need this to make Alzheimer's a priority instead of brushing it under the carpet.

You can help. The link below will send a director message to the Secretary of the Health and human Services agency, Kathleen Sebelius. You just need to fill in the blanks and hit your send key. Please take a moment to do this -- it will help everyone!

http://www.kintera.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=mmKXLbP8E&b=6089303

CBS Sunday Morning

Yesterday, on CBS Sunday Morning, Barry Peterson did a story about his wife dealing with younger onset Alzheimer's. I can't get the link to work here, but if you go to www.cbsnews.com and click on Sunday morning and the link to "Jan's story" you will see it. It's wonderful. I've ordered his book and I'll let you know what I think if I can get through it!

Back from DC

I've been gone awhile -- I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted -- and I said I was going to do better. We have been to DC to see Jennifer and Alan. I've posted a few photos. We did some things that we haven't done before -- we went to the Kennedy Center and saw a concert, went to Wolftrap to see a show, and we went to the Capitol Visitors Center. I've tried to go there a couple of times and didn't make it. We had a nice visit.

The first photo was taken from the old Post Office in downtown DC. We had a beautiful morning with clear skies. Then two from the Kennedy Center, Alan and Jennifer at the Eastern Market on Capitol Hill, Ralph and I at the Visitor's Center and the last photo taken on the Washington monument as we were paddle boating in the Tidal Basin. Thanks to Jennifer and Alan for their hosptality.

I did o.k on the trip. Crossing the streets in large cities is a problem for me but I always had someone with me. And, we had a harrowing experience getting to the airport in time for our flight -- 10 more minutes and we would have missed it. Then on the way back we had our planed delayed four hours. It is always something traveling these days isn't it?

We returned to hot hot weather here in the south. We played golf this morning and I don't know what I was thinking!!! I guess I wasn't -- my concentration was pretty poor and I did awful. And, it was really too hot to play......but like idiots we did.

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. Thanks to all that have served our country!

I was watching more tennis over the weekend and did a little better with keeping up with things. A UGA woman won the national singles championship so we were happy about that.

I actually went out and hit the tennis ball with my husband last week. I haven't been playing because of my balance issues, but after watching so much I wanted to get out and hit some. We weren't able to actually play a game, but I did o.k. considering my limitations. It was nice to "feel" like I was actually playing again -- I miss it a lot.

On another note, I received notice about a new clinical study that is getting started. It is actually a continuation of one that has just completed. But, due to some extra grants, this study is going to go further. It's intent is to try to help determine changes in the brain early -- to help diagnose Alzheimer's earlier in patients. I'm going to post a link for more information. In Georgia, Emory University is a site for this trial, but according to the website they are not recruiting volunteers yet. But, there is information on this link for you to get in touch with them (and any other areas where the trial is being run). http://adcs.org/Studies/ImagineADNI.aspx or you can call the Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center (ADEAR) at 1-800-438-4380. As always, I'm not endorsing this study, I'm just passing it along to those that might be interested. They are not only looking for people with early memory loss but healthy volunteers as well.