Alzheimer's gradual effects take toll
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Alan Romatowski still views himself as "almost 100 percent." He says, "The biggest problem I have, and it's the same I had last year, is dealing with math. I don't dare to do the checkbook, but that started two years ago." -
Josie Romatowski says, "I just try to deal with things one day at a time."
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It was Sept. 21, and 59-year-old Alan Romatowski heard the worst news since the moment three years and 16 days earlier when he was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
His doctors at UPMC's Alzheimer Disease Research Center told him that based on his annual evaluation, they no longer felt it was safe for him to drive. They would advise the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to revoke his license.
Alan recoiled. The former airline pilot from Butler County had been striving to maintain an active lifestyle ever since the unexpected diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's cost him his job with US Airways. He was working part time at Costco, driving himself there and to volunteer positions for Meals on Wheels and at a local hospital.
And the longtime adrenaline lover had his motorcycle to ride -- the one thrill in life that the disease had not yet cost him.
Stunned by the doctors' pronouncement terminating his mobility, he bolted from the conference room.
"I was steamed," he says now, recalling the moment clearly. "I was going to blow off the whole program."
For someone with his affliction, his memory function remains strong.
Alan Romatowski is one of an estimated 5.3 million Americans with Alzheimer's, only 10 percent of whom have it before age 65 like him. He began encountering problems on routine airline checkups of his abilities in his mid-50s.
He was forced in 2007 to stop flying, a skill he'd acquired as a young teen in New Jersey before he even had his driver's license. It was the only livelihood he'd known, and suddenly he, his wife Josie and their three children were faced without the healthy income that had been counted upon into his 60s.
While undeniably devastating, Alzheimer's is not a disease that immediately robs its victims of their functioning. Patients often follow a downward trajectory for five to 10 years from diagnosis -- experiencing memory loss, confusion, loss of daily functioning and even of self-identity -- with the symptoms and rate of decline varying for each individual.
First Published November 28, 2010 12:00 am
