Page 28 - Keralite Magazine _2020

KERALITE  APRIL 20 20 35

Her Beautiful Big Brown Eyes

A Daughter’s Journey with Dementia

I found myself standing outside the neurologist’s
o ce of a renowned institution where I was just
given the devastating diagnosis of my mother’s
illness. After explaining her condition to me in a low
lit, sterile, examining room, with the eyes of his
training residents on me, her neurologist said, “You
can give her the diagnosis in a way she can
Asha Shajahan, MD, MHSA
understand.”

Tears rolled down my face. I am a doctor. I break
bad news and give diagnoses several times a day.
This is my bread and butter. But this time, I had to
give it to my own family. I knew what it would mean
for my mother’s future as well as my father’s, and
the destructive impact it would have on our entire
family.

My mother has posterior cortical atrophy, a rare
form of early-onset dementia with visual
impairment. There is no cure, no e ective
treatment, and the condition will only worsen.

I flew across the country in search of the latest
research. I spoke to famous specialists who could
only o er clinical trials that they themselves said
were not even close to a cure. I read journal after
journal, emailed physicians and researchers, and
traveled to various specialists. I got the same
answer. No cure. No treatment.

I felt defeated.

I had failed my mother. What was the point of being
a doctor if I couldn’t treat my own mother? Anger,
sadness, denial all brewed inside me.