Posted 5/9/24
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5, speaking specifically of healing our greatest need, or broken soul)
Yesterday was Part 2 of my Tour de Cobaye, helping those with big brains gather data needed to find various treatment options, diagnostic tools, and a cure for Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The brain is very interesting in its resilience, but even the brainiest of the brainy struggle to explain this miracle. This study I attended yesterday is working on trying to understand how the brain does workarounds when it is having problems with an eye on helping it as best we can do what it does. It was an amazing 5 hour visit that included playing with Lego blocks and doing a lot of things with a pen and paper while squeezed in an MRI for 90 minutes.
It was a little uncomfortable, mostly because of my size, but the staff was great and it was very worthwhile. 🙂
Last week’s Day 1 of the Tour, I went to Atlanta to Emory University’s ADRC for my first Longitudinal visit. That makes 3 longitudinal studies in which I participate (WashU, Emory, Vanderbilt). Note: A longitudinal study, as the first 4 letters imply, is long. It is designed to put the study participant through a series of studies every X number of years and gather data on change. Then, should they develop Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, they have a wonderful, nerdy paper trail on which to tiptoe to see change over time. I realize that “Big Data” is ominous. I get it. Our data/AI overlords will surely take us all down someday 😉 … but in this case, AI can crunch my data and hundreds/thousands like mine…and make correlations in lots of amazing ways that would take a researcher longer to correlate, especially with innate biases that they may have. I realize big data also has biases, but the prize of a multi-Trillion dollar cure should push back.
Emory trip including the mandatory stop at Buccee’s!
Yesterday’s WashU trip was a little light on pictures because of the tornado everywhere(!!!), but you get the point. I did get another brain pic 🙂 :
Stop 3 on the tour (Vanderbilt) should happen late this month and I will fill you in on it as it happens.
Last year I did 4 Corners for a Cure in which I went to the 4 corners of the state and did 9 hours a day of stairs to generate some media buzz and donations. This year I am back to the Frisco trail again doing Walkin’ For the Wanderers. I will walk the trail every day of the summer solstice week, if I am able. 🙂 37 miles per day.
Here are the T-Shirts this year if you would like to order one or 50. 😉 All profit goes directly to my Longest Day event 100% benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association. We added my Venmo to this and my papal is appleofmyit@gmail.com if you prefer that method. I will ship them for whatever the actual shipping cost will be or will deliver them within reason in the Ozarks for free 🙂
Do I hate Alzheimer’s and related dementias? Yup. I will keep fighting for a cure through all means I can. 🙂
#EndALZ
Mom is doing somewhat better after a few days of awful lung noise caused by aspirating food/drink, as always. I will see her at some point tonight and will update you again soon. 🙂 She is a serious fighter. I am thankful for every day I have with her.