Rating: 
Summary: You Are Not Alone
Review: This book is a must read! You will laugh. You will cry. But if you have ever been a caregiver for a loved one with dementia of the Alzheimer's type, you will finally know--really know--you are not alone. Someone out there(E.Cooney), knows exactly what you are going through--all your feelings of sorrow and stress, all your frustration and guilt.
Personally, I found I really needed to read this book. I thought there were no words to describe the intensity of the experience I went through with my beloved mother, who also had A.D. But E. Cooney's words do just that.
Her honest story will amaze you as you hear your own voice echoing her thoughts and emotions. You'll ride the roller-coaster of high expectations and low disappointments, high hopes and low regrets, in the land of Alzheimer's.
I wish I had had this book when I was caring for my mother. I knew of no one who could truly understand our plight, not just when my mom lived with me, but also when I had to move her elsewhere. Though back then I might have been too exhausted to read more than a few pages each day, even that would've been such comfort and encouragement to my aching heart, because I wouldn't have felt so alone.
Over three years have passed since my mother died, and I am still processing grief over my loss and her sad decline. But in the pages of this book, I found a healing balm. Whether or not it was the author's intention, she has given me a gift for which I am truly grateful. Buy this book, and pray for a cure for this devastating disease!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!!!
Review: This book is brilliant!! I, too cared for my mother and watched her die before my very eyes. This book brought both laughter and tears and a whirlwind of emotions that made me realize that I am not the only "loving daughter" who treated their beloved mother with disrespect and impatience. Until you have walked in caregiver's shoes you just don't understand what it is like. Ms. Cooney was able to portray not only the up and down life she was living, but the confusing life her mother was trying to survive in. Thank you Ms. Cooney!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book for Alzheimer's caregivers...
Review: This was one of the most gripping books I've ever read! Her thorough account in coping with her mother's AD was both astonishing and appreciatively honest and graphic. "Death in Slow Motion" truly depicts the "phases of grief" when a loved one dies. Shock, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression, acceptance-they are all there. With Cooney being her mother's caregiver, it seems appropriate that she didn't have any children. I don't know how anyone with children (young, living at home) could fit into this tangled web of sorts--but yet I'm sure in reality that it does happen. Though it was never mentioned, I'm curious if Cooney's brother had any children...? Twist of fate or bad luck--you call it. In one way, Cooney was fortunate that she worked from home. I'm sure she would have been late to work many times or altogether absent more often than not. Otherwise, she would probably have been out of a job only a few months into caring for her mother. Still, working away from home would have offered a reprieve away from her mother and maybe even reduced some of the depression. Clearly this was desperately needed since Cooney resorted to her vice alcohol; too, her boyfriend drank heavily. Drinking to avoid reality illustrated a truly horrible situation of her mother's disease and how it affected the family and loved ones. She even drank hard liquor while working! I can't even stay awake after two or three drinks...I had no idea that it was THAT awful; living with and caring for someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease and that it could literally drive the caregiver to utter madness...
But, as Cooney mentioned, it was almost impossible for her to get any work done with her mother within an arm's reach. Her mother's constant needs and questions, disorientation and stomach ailments had Cooney going in circles or off in tangents-
whichever you prefer. Her working until the 'wee' hours reminded me of when my children were newborns, I was awake at midnight doing laundry or cleaning the house, while baby (to a certain extent) slept. And yet comparatively, being a new mother is rewarding and gradually improves with time (the sleep factor anyway); however, I didn't get the feeling that Cooney (being an AD caregiver) felt this satisfaction at all! In fact, it was far more shocking for reason that she watched an amazing woman so full of life take a nose-dive into muddled and disorientated waters in unison with the continuous
despondency invading everyone's lives. At the same time, she experienced anger at her mother for being like this and then guilt for thinking such thoughts-in no particular order. These can be inferred as 'parent-type' feelings that I think most parents go through (from lack of sleep, frustration from baby crying, etc.). Cooney undoubtedly experienced motherhood in a bizarre sort of way. This ongoing guilt and pain that Cooney suffered reveals her devotion and love for her mother. Though the details weren't there, it didn't seem that Cooney received adequate information on the progression of this disease. Or perhaps she already knew plenty about it but failed to say so-I don't know. But she seemed to be in constant denial of her mother's condition in thinking that she would 'be okay' in a home of assisted living. Then again, I suppose the last thing I would want to do is to live with knowing that I had placed my mother in a nursing home. On top of the guilt factors alone, the horrors she experienced with the inadequate hospitals or the homes overmedicating her mother-I can't blame Cooney's ongoing reluctance. What a relief (?) for her to finally acknowledge the biting reality of mother's disease consequently reaching out for help, stop lying staff workers of the various homes and eventually place her in a fitting environment. Definitely, "Death in Slow Motion" is vital for any caregiver in the vicious world of Alzheimer's disease. I debate with myself, if I'd recommend it for a person inflicted with the disease. The mother in me wants to protect the "child", per se, from the cruel but real world. Then again, if I was the person with AD I surely would want to know what was in store for me...
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