THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040516
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 96 lines
When Lois Fogle married a man 14 years her senior, she knew he'd probably die before her. But she thought the end, when it came, would be quick.
Instead, she has spent the past three years watching her husband, Paul Fogle Jr., die inch by inch as Alzheimer's disease slowly steals his mind.
Paul, 76, now lives in a Norfolk assisted living home. The disease stripped his dignity even as it erased his memory, reducing him to a bent, painfully thin man who spends much of his time sitting in a wheelchair or slowly walking the long, empty hall on the second floor of Pinewood Inn Retirement Residence.
Most days, Lois, 62, walks with him, carefully holding onto the back of his pants to ensure he doesn't fall.
On Saturday, she'll be helping others walk as a volunteer for the Hampton Roads chapter of the Alzheimer's Association's largest annual fund-raiser, Memory Walk 1996. Six hundred people are expected to walk in Norfolk and on the Peninsula.
Most disease fund-raisers spend the money they raise for direct research on the illness. And some of Saturday's funds will go to research. But the bulk of the expected $60,000 in proceeds is marked for another purpose - helping people like Lois Fogle. The other victims of Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease that attacks the brain and severely impairs memory, thinking and behavior.
It affects one in 10 people over age 65 and nearly half of those over 85. An estimated 4 million Americans suffer from the disease, 17,000 in Hampton Roads.
But while the devastating effects of Alzheimer's on its victims are obvious - they might require continuous care for years before dying - its more subtle, debilitating toll on caregivers often goes unnoticed.
``The bottom line is that the burden of the disease doesn't fall on the victim as much as on the caregiver,'' said Dr. Stefan Gravenstein, an expert in memory disorders who works at Eastern Virginia Medical School's Glennan Center for Geriatrics.
That's because victims are usually unaware of their forgetfulness once they get past the disease's initial stages. The caregiver never forgets.
A recent study of 500 Alzheimer's caregivers by Yankelovich Partners Inc., a major polling organization, showed that nearly three-quarters were depressed at least occasionally, and one-third almost constantly.
That's why the Alzheimer's Association targets much of its efforts toward caregivers, sponsoring 23 local support groups and a 24-hour hot line and providing grants for adult day care and respite care to allow caregivers a break.
For Lois Fogle, coping with her husband's Alzheimer's nearly killed her - emotionally, financially and physically.
It meant the end of the accounting business she and Paul had run together for more than 10 years.
The end of the meticulous, organized man she'd married on Valentine's Day, an avid golf player, one who loved to travel. Almost overnight, it seemed, she watched his decline into someone who couldn't feed himself, couldn't drive, couldn't read.
And it meant the end of her own rock-hard resilience and strength.
Last year, Lois plummeted into a deep, immobilizing depression.
She couldn't take care of herself, much less her husband. Her children put Paul into the retirement home and took Lois home to live with them.
After six weeks of therapy and medication, Lois felt well enough to visit Paul. When he saw her, he burst into tears.
``He was afraid I'd gotten what he had,'' Lois said.
The year since has been a time of realignment and growth.
Visiting her husband in the retirement home, Lois realized that even though people with Alzheimer's live an undignified existence, they ``still appreciate kindness, consideration and love.''
So she decided to become a certified nursing aide and help others like Paul.
With a grant from SEVAMP, the region's Area Agency on Aging, she returned to school. Last month she graduated with a nearly perfect score on her nurse's aide exam.
In a couple of weeks, she's moving to Madison County to live with her daughter and start a new career in home health care.
Paul will go with her. ILLUSTRATION: GARY C. KNAPP photos
Lois Fogle, right, talks with real estate agent Debra Persons about
selling the home she once shared with her husband, Paul, center, who
lives at Pinewood Inn Retirement Residence in Norfolk. Lois and Paul
soon will be moving to Madison County.
Lois Fogle helps husband Paul sign documents for the sale of their
home. Lois will take part in Saturday's Memory Walk 1996, a
fund-raiser for Alzheimer's research and its victims.
Graphic
ABOUT THE DISEASE
4 million Americans, 17,000 in Hampton Roads, have Alzheimer's
disease. The disease affects 1 in 10 people age 65 and older, half
of those over 85.
Symptoms include gradual loss of memory and eventual failure of
all other body functions that are directed by the brain, resulting
in death. It is the fourth leading cause of death in the United
States. by CNB