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| Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Ellen Geist
Creator: Oliver Sacks
Publisher: Springboard Press
Category: Book
List Price: $23.99
Buy New: $11.98
You Save: $12.01 (50%)
New (39) Used (7) from $11.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 53908
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0446580929
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.1968310092
EAN: 9780446580922
ASIN: 0446580929
Publication Date: August 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Mary Ellen Geist decided to leave her job as a CBS Radio anchor to return home to Michigan when her father's Alzheimer's got to be too much for her mother to shoulder alone. She chose to live her life by a different set of priorities: to be guided by her heart, not by outside accomplishment and recognition.
The New York Times wrote a front page story on Mary Ellen on Thanksgiving 2005. It was one of the most e-mailed stories for the month. Through her own story and through interviews with doctors and other women who've followed the "Daughter Track"--leaving a job to care for an aging parent--Geist offers emotional insights on how to encourage interaction with the loved one you're caring for; how to determine daily tasks that are achievable and rewarding; how the personality of the patient affects the caregiving and the progression of the diseases; as well as invaluable advice about how caregivers can take care of themselves while accomplishing the Herculean task of constantly caring for others.
Geist's years in journalism allow her to report on Boomers' caretaking dilemmas with professional objectivity, and her warm voice brings compassion and insight to one of the most difficult stituations a son or daughter may face during his or her life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
A Daughter's Love Story November 17, 2008
What a wonderful book about Mary Ellen Geist who gives up her high paying job as a reporter, her lifestyle and all she knows to move back with her mom to take care of her dad who has Alzheimers. This book has it all--humor, sadness, touching moments. You get into it quickly and at points it is hard to put down. I enjoyed this this book! I'd give it 10 stars if I could!
Touching, Thoughtful, and Helpful October 29, 2008
Hope. Grief. Frustration. Exhaustion. Delight. Denial. Mary Ellen Geist touches on all these emotions and many more in her account of dealing with her father's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She put her career and life on hold and returned to her childhood home in Michigan to help her parents. In the Foreword Dr. Oliver Sacks points out that Geist "has written eloquently of a whole family living with dementia." This is indeed the whole family's story. Geist gently guides readers into the labyrinth of daily life in the household.
The book is emotional but also full of information. Stories of other caregivers are woven into the narrative. Facts and figures about the disease and caregivers (71% are women) are provided. Particular attention is devoted to caregivers. All too often caregivers take on too much and compromise their own health.
One chapter that surprised me was about the hospital experience. Geist's father (Woody) was admitted for orthopedic surgery, a double knee replacement. He was in the hospital for two weeks. The hospital personnel were not prepared to deal with a Alzheimer's patient; I was shocked. This chapter, "Hospital Hell and Healing," should be read by any caregiver who will have an Alzheimer's patient in the hospital. Geist offers a list of suggestions that will be helpful.
Despite a cascading loss of mental acuity, Woody never lost his musical abilities. He remembered the words and melodies to songs learned long ago. Music remained in tact in Woody's brain. As Sacks notes, "he seemed to be completely present, to come together and bypass his dementia (though as soon as the singing ended, the dementia was evident again)."
Anyone caring for a person with dementia will find information and validation in this book. There are resources listed and a bibliography. Most importantly Geist brings her journalist's instincts to bear on this incredibly difficult and stressful situation. She honestly discusses personal difficulties and offers concrete suggestions for coping.
An Emotional Journey with Alzheimer's October 19, 2008
Mary Ellen Geist left a stellar career as a radio broadcaster to move home and help her mother take care of her father, Woody, a sufferer of Alzheimer's. She did not know, could not know what she was in for.
Like so many daughters who move home to cope with this devastating disease, Geist experienced moments of sweetness, hours of frustration, days of pain as she watched her father slip further and further away. Her dreams of rescuing her mother from the pain of a spouse with Alzheimer's faded away to a more realistic view of the disease and the problems that inevitably accompany it. Their world, once expansive, contracted as friends slipped away. This is how it is living with Alzheimer's.
Geist has created a fine volume. Her writing shines and is even lyrical at times. Her pain is clear; the gifts this disease brought her also clear. Hers is a book to make the tears flow, and mine did as I recalled my own father's descent into darkness.
If there ever were a reason to make every possible effort to avoid Alzheimer's or any other the other dementias associated with aging, Geist provides it. Read it. Weep and laugh with her.
Godspeed Woody. Godspeed Mary Ellen. Well done.
The Realities of Alzheimer's September 14, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
As lifespans lengthen, it's an unfortunate reality that more and more of us are likely to encounter the tragedy of Alzheimer's Disease. In "Measure of the Heart," ambitious, successful California and New York radio news anchor and reporter Mary Ellen Geist tells of leaving her career to help her mother care for her father as he declines in the clutches of this terrible affliction.
Both an exlanation of Alzheimers and a personal caregiver's memoir, this book explores the tragic effects of the disease on the vctim and his family. As the disease progresses, the author learns to let herself be guided by her heart rather than by the pressures of her demanding career.
This very personal story helps to explain the devotion of Woody Geist's wife, daughters, and other family members to this nice, kind, cheerful former CEO who loves to play tennis and to sing, activities he is able to continue long after the disease strikes. The family's selfless devotion and refusal to put Woody into a care facility seem puzzling as the disease progresses, and yet their extraordinary love is admirable.
In addition to telling the victim's and caregivers' stories, this book explores and lists various resources: helpful organizations, publications, and web sites devoted to Alzheimer's and those dealing with it. The book makes fascination reading for anyone who has ever wondered about the disease or marveled at the dedication of those dealing with its victims. For anyone faced with an Alzheimer's diagnosis in the famiy, it should be required reading.
a book I can whole-heartedly recommend September 3, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
About a year ago, I was exploring a relatively undiscovered island paradise in the South China Sea when I received a call telling me my father (age 92) and his wife (86) had been in an accident and both were in the hospital. As the only child, I naturally said I'd be there (rural western Michigan - more than 8,600 miles away) as soon as possible. When I commented something like "must have been a bad accident" the response was "the accident isn't the problem." Having an unstable VOIP connection, I let that comment drop and began making arrangement to head there (stopping off briefly at my home in Nevada). As soon as I got to the states, I had to confront the harsh reality: the accident wasn't the cause of the problem - it was the result of both of them having what was now diagnosed as "Senile Dementia of Alzheimer's type."
Flash forward 9 months. My life has adapted to a routine of flying to Michigan to spend a week or so each month with them -- while a couple wonderful paid 24/7 caregivers allow them the freedom to stay in their home. I'm fresh off a red-eye, driving a rent-a-SUV full of food and flowers and Depends heading to my parent's home when I hear on Diane Rehms' NPR show some woman addressing a challenging issue that I was also facing at the time (how to get an Alzheimer's patient to eat). Damn! She had some extremely helpful suggestions. As soon as I arrived, I implemented her concepts -- then went on-line with my laptop and ordered her book (Measure of the Heart) from Amazon. And I'm so glad I did.
More than merely a compendium of useful tips (even though it is also that) Mary Ellen Geist's book is an insightful and thought-provoking first-person perspective that will strike a resounding chord with anyone who has a friend or family member with this disease - as well as being a fascinating, touching story for any reader.
It is her very personal narrative of leaving the fast-paced, high-profile world of broadcast journalism in New York City to come home to Michigan and help care for her father who has suffered from Alzheimer's for 10+ years. With a delicate balance of humor and profound sadness, Mary Ellen gives voice to the heart-wrenching challenges that hundreds of thousands of us baby boomers now face in caring for our aging parent.
It is obvious from her book that her father was a brilliant, charming and gentle man. It also shines a light on the heroism of spousal caretakers like her mother, Rosemary. It weaves together this family's story with a very readable account of his slow transformation and deterioration. She addresses the complexity and array of emotions surrounding issues such as the loss of independence, unwanted personality shifts, struggle to communicate, and the unique power music sometimes has to transcend the pain.
This book is hard to put down. Then, on the other hand, there were times in reading her story (such as dealing with refusals to eat or patiently listening to the same story over and over) that touched me so deeply and personally, that I had to stop reading and put it down.
Mary Ellen acknowledges the difficulty of these situations honestly, while at the same time providing simple concepts that can help diffuse the issues by emphasizing a strategy of relating to patients in their own reality.
She used her fine journalistic investigative skills to learn everything she could about the disease's history and treatment options. The book is user friendly. It shows easy, day to day activities that can help patients feel a sense of connection and accomplishment.
This is book of courage, instruction, empathy and family loyalty. Certainly, there are numerous challenges that other families face which it does not address. Yet, it is what it is: her personal revelation of her family's story. This appears to be an exceptional family - she is certainly an extraordinary woman - and this is a book I can whole-heartedly recommend.
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