Losing Lou-Ann

Rating:
Summary: Losing Lou-Ann
Review: Losing Lou-Ann is a biography of a Pick's disease patient from diagnosis to death, seven years later. The author is Lou-Ann's husband, Clint Erb, a professor at the University of Vermont. The book appears to be based primarily upon the author's diary written during his wife's illness, though some medical records are cited.

Losing Lou-Ann provides a description of the course of Pick's disease for a specific victim and the emotional, financial, and other effects upon Lou-Ann's husband, children, parents, in-laws, church, and community. The various responses-admirable, indifferent, or hurtful-are described.

I purchased and read this book because my wife was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease category that includes Pick's disease. I wanted to learn what might lay ahead in more detail than provided by medical synopses. Losing Lou-Ann provides such a view, sad as it is. The disease-related events reported in the book seem completely true, judging from early experiences with my wife.

Losing Lou-Ann does not allude to one aspect of Pick's disease, possibly genetic influences. This omission is surprising since during Lou-Ann's illness her daughter married. It seems reasonable that hereditary linkages would have been discussed at that time and thus be included in the book. Doubtlessly, less was known then than now, but scholars have recently reported an apparent autosomal-dominant inheritance pattern for familial frontotemporal dementia.

This book is also a love story. Lou-Ann's husband Clint visited her almost every day, sometimes more than once, for the years when she lived in a nursing home. When Lou-Ann could not feed herself, Clint regularly feed her dinner. When she was incontinent, he changed her diapers. And always Clint longed to have Lou-Ann's head upon his shoulder as in years past.

This is a book about a terrible disease and a great love.

Rating:
Summary: Losing Lou-Ann
Review: Losing Lou-Ann is a biography of a Pick's disease patient from diagnosis to death, seven years later. The author is Lou-Ann's husband, Clint Erb, a professor at the University of Vermont. The book appears to be based primarily upon the author's diary written during his wife's illness, though some medical records are cited.

Losing Lou-Ann provides a description of the course of Pick's disease for a specific victim and the emotional, financial, and other effects upon Lou-Ann's husband, children, parents, in-laws, church, and community. The various responses-admirable, indifferent, or hurtful-are described.

I purchased and read this book because my wife was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease category that includes Pick's disease. I wanted to learn what might lay ahead in more detail than provided by medical synopses. Losing Lou-Ann provides such a view, sad as it is. The disease-related events reported in the book seem completely true, judging from early experiences with my wife.

Losing Lou-Ann does not allude to one aspect of Pick's disease, possibly genetic influences. This omission is surprising since during Lou-Ann's illness her daughter married. It seems reasonable that hereditary linkages would have been discussed at that time and thus be included in the book. Doubtlessly, less was known then than now, but scholars have recently reported an apparent autosomal-dominant inheritance pattern for familial frontotemporal dementia.

This book is also a love story. Lou-Ann's husband Clint visited her almost every day, sometimes more than once, for the years when she lived in a nursing home. When Lou-Ann could not feed herself, Clint regularly feed her dinner. When she was incontinent, he changed her diapers. And always Clint longed to have Lou-Ann's head upon his shoulder as in years past.

This is a book about a terrible disease and a great love.

Rating:
Summary: A moving account
Review: This book delves into the world of living with a person suffering from a terminal illness. Lou-Ann declines from being a bright 43 year old woman into having the mind of a three year old in only one year. She is finally diagnosed with Pick's Disease, an illness silimar to Alzheimer's. Her husband, Clint, sticks with her, visiting her every day at the nursing home she is finally forced to go to. Their story of a strong love and the life that is lead by the family of a Pick's patient is moving, funny, and wonderful. It should be read by everyone!