Rocky River, OH, March 8, 2019—Those who have emerged from the experience of caring for and losing a spouse or parent to dementia understand well how difficult the journey is. But for those whose loved one has just been diagnosed, Dr. Donald Hricik’s Lynne’s Last Christmas: A Battle With Dementia may be a helpful companion to have for the difficult journey ahead.
Lynne Hricik was diagnosed with the disease at age 64, and shortly after her death, Dr. Hricik penned Lynne’s Last Christmas within a few weeks as both a way of dealing with his and his family’s grief and to provide information about the disease and about caring for someone with dementia.
“I truly hope this book will provide some comfort to the many others who are caring for someone with this awful thing called dementia. You are not alone,” says Dr. Hricik.
In Lynne’s Last Christmas, Dr. Hricik recalls the last four years of his wife’s life during which she suffered memory loss and frequent falls. He also discusses the impact of her illness upon his children and close friends, and actually debated whether to have his children read the manuscript before it was published. All agreed that they should. “They cried when they read the final draft, but in sharing their thoughts, it brought back memories—both the good times and the bad times—we’d had during Lynne’s life,” he said.
The author also goes into detail about the condition itself. Dementia, he explains, isn’t a specific disease but rather a term that captures the group of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills. Though sometimes confused with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia is the overall group of which Alzheimer’s makes up 60-80 percent of cases.
Dr. Hricik is currently Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and served as the Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension at University Hospital’s Cleveland Medical Center from 1993 to 2017. His research interests have focused on complications of immunosuppression and immune monitoring of kidney transplant recipients. He has published more than 180 articles and books, and 35 book chapters.
Royalties from the book are being donated to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and to the University Hospitals of Cleveland Hospice Service.
To read more about Dr. Hricik, please visit: https://dhricik.wixsite.com/website-1.
Lynne’s Last Christmas: A Battle With Dementia
Kindle Direct Publishing
Released: December 4, 2018
ISBN-10: 1790751403
ISBN-13: 978-1790751402
Available from Amazon.com
