Greg O’Brien’s On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s

My friend Greg O’Brien is having spine surgery this Tuesday in Boston. Greg has Alzheimer’s disease. He cared for both of his parents as they passed through the stages and finally died of Alzheimer’s, and now he has it. He is a few years ahead of me in the journey, but we have become friends, although we have never met in person.  Greg lives on Cape Cod.  I live in Portland, Oregon, but a few years ago the Alzheimer’s Association put us in touch as we are both advocates for destigmatizing Alzheimer’s. Greg is a journalist and the author of what I consider to be the best book written by a person with dementia: On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s. The second edition was published in 2018. There is no better book that describes what it is like to have Alzheimer’s. Greg is a Cape Cod neighbor of Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice, and she has written beautiful introductions to both editions of his book.

Any surgery can be risky in someone with Alzheimer’s. Disorientation and agitation following anesthesia are common, and recovery can be slowed, but usually cognition eventually returns to baseline. I’ll be thinking of you on Tuesday Greg, and I wish you a speedy recovery.