Thank you.
You have said a lot of interesting things and I feel that they are a little mixed up in my mind.
You're right in saying that I know the disease from the inside.
To be honest, I wouldn't want anyone to have to care for a young person with Alzheimer's disease. Older people often die before getting to the end of the disease, the stage at which the symptoms are horrendous. Younger people don't die because they are in good shape. My father had been very athletic and wasn't dying.
I would have trouble believing that anyone who has witnessed this kind of end-of-life process and was afterwards diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease would choose to carry on to the very end. It's clear that I certainly wouldn't.
My father was well cared for. There were people there for him. Nevertheless you could see the suffering on his face and in his eyes. His face looked tense. He cried when he would look at me but was unable to speak any more. He crawled around on the floor. He licked the floor. I don't think that most human beings would want to do that. I don't want to go through it. Knowing what it is, I want to avoid it.
Other people have a different view of the end of life and that's fine. The ideal is to allow everyone to follow the path that suits them, on the basis of what life gives to them.
Life gave me a poisoned chalice. I decided to be proactive and work towards living a dignified life in spite of Alzheimer's disease. That's not really possible right now.