from the disease. Her mother was
as a quadriplegic who could no longer speak. Eventually, the disease shuts the body down as organs fail and for this reason, Alzheimer s is called the long goodbye, Moorehead said. I got to the point where when my mom couldn t talk anymore to tell me what itched, what hurt or if she was cold, she said.
progressively impacts memory, thinking and behavior with symptoms such as aggression, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, paranoia, memory loss and hallucinations, according to the Alzheimer s Association.
The disease can be devastating for families, and the hurdles are made more difficult in isolated communities. Moorhead and her family are from Cambridge a city of about 10,000 people tucked in the Appalachian mountains of southeastern Ohio. Her neighbors are predominantly Scottish-Irish, she said.