What My Mother’s Caregiving Taught Me may not be the only book you get on Alzheimer’s, but it should be the first book you buy.  Get copies for every family member household as well so you are all on the same page with the basics from an author who knows how to search through rooms filled with data, official records, first hand interviews, web-sites, and his own personal daily diary to sort it out for you.   Get a copy for your doctor too.  Whatever you think the facts are about Alzheimer’s you may be completely wrong.  Most are either in denial or decide to make up their own plan.  This is the book that will set you straight on a solid course of understanding, and present a real life story so you can determine you own best care giving game plan.  This is the text book for “Alzheimer’s 101”.  It is everything and anything you must know about how the Alzheimer’s experience dishes it out to patients, spouses, families, friends, and caregivers by a guy who wanted to give his best to the mother he loved so much.  The author is a former career computer sales pro.  His job was to know how the massive and expensive main-frames he was pitching worked inside and out, as well as his competitor’s systems.  That’s how Bob Bublitz did his job selling massive electronic systems.  He was good at it.  When Bob’s mother started down her own Alzheimer’s trail, this detailed problem solver decided to take apart his own experience as her only son and caregiver from beginning to end, combine it with all the disease related facts, resources, research, on-line data, his own caregiver group encounters, and personal stories he uncovered, and put it all together in one great resource.  This book is that resource.  This is the book you quote from when a sister tells you, “Mom isn’t so bad, all she needs are those vitamins I heard about on the radio”, or when another sibling wants to take mom out of a care facility for a 14 hour holiday non-stop drive back to her old house.  This stuff really happens.  I’ve been a career network TV producer/director for decades and I have done lots of interviews with Alzheimer’s family members young and old.  There is always one family member in denial that makes the rest of the family crazy, or furious.  This book will give family or solo caregiver some rules of the road as they make their own journey through the Alzheimer’s experience. If, like the author, you are in this all alone to care or arrange for care for someone, or if you do have siblings to deal with, this book is the real deal foundation for decision making you can trust.  This is personal experience, data, and medical input all wrapped around a mother and son’s most personal experiences together. Today, and especially with Alzheimer’s disease, patients and families are told to get solid information on their own medical challenges from diagnosis to treatments, from out of pocket costs, to emotional costs.  Alzheimer’s – What My Mother’s Caregivig Taught Me, is the book that does that.  It is also an amazing legacy to Olive Bublitz’ full life, to her courage, and to a mother and son’s willingness to share it all.  It is their gift to you and you should take it.  

Bob Raser is a career award winning network and cable television producer.  He is also a noted California plein-air landscape painter.  His families own Alzheimer’s experience is with his mother-in-law, who is currently in a long term facility in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.