By JOY HAMPTON

Staff Writer

news4@claremoreprogress.com

Every 71 seconds another person is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, according to Lyslie Lewellen, 29-year-old resident of Chelsea and the granddaughter of Alzheimer’s sufferer, Shirley Mizer.

There is no cure.

“It’s an awful disease,” said Lewellen.

A Claremore High graduate and manager of Pits Bar-B-Que in Claremore, Lewellen alternates between laughter and tears as she talks about her grandmother, the happy memories, the devastation of disease.

“She doesn’t recognize me most days and she practically raised me.”

Those with AD may suffer less than the loved ones who care for them. Alzheimer’s victims tend to live in the past and often do not recognize those closest to them. “Difficult” behaviors such as wandering, anger, paranoia, confusion, repetition, and even violence or inappropriate sexual behavior can occur.

“Protein forms in the brain,” said Lewellen. She has made it a point to educate herself on AD, to try to understand what is happening to her grandmother. “It takes a person you love away, one day at a time.”

“Every Sunday we still go out and have dinner with Mom,” said Lewellen’s mother Johnna Mizer, but Shirley’s personality has changed and she doesn’t always recognize family members. “I miss talking to my mother.”

Hope is found in early diagnosis and the drugs that keep the disease at bay. Lewellen said recognizing symptoms early and getting treatment is key to prolonging the full onset of the disease.

“There’s no cure in sight,” said Lewellen, “But there is treatment to slow down the early stages.”

Like most families, Lewellen said her family was in denial about what the diagnosis meant for the future. Education and acceptance has helped her and her mother, Johanna Mizer, to deal with Shirley’s disease.