Two years of pilgrimage from one specialist center to another to get a diagnosis. The time of lockdowns during the pandemic spent in total solitude, without any help. But Michela Morruto would not be never gave up on Alzheimer’s which clouded memories of her husband before the time. Why Paul Small he was not yet 43 when he started forgetting to pick up the children from school, to go shopping, often even to eat, and then forget where he had put his car keys or wallet. AND losing shots day after day, until he couldn’t find his way back if he went out alone. Michela Morruto does not give up even now that so many are asking her for help, because “it is not easy to juggle the offices of the public administration, open disability procedures get some listen,” he explains.
She and Paolo, who is now 52 years old and was admitted to an institutionbefore the disease took over they decided to write a diary for their children “A small time”. Theirs are children who grew up quickly. the eldest, Mattiaat the age of 10 he was already a caregiver for his father and President Mattarella appointed him for this Bishop of the Republic. “But these are things you would never want for your children.” Only recently did the little one stop asking, “When is dad coming back?” Michela, 50, employed in an accountants’ firm, recounts the struggle she had to endure to find an audience: Â «I was already aware of oddities when Paolo was 40, little things. Then when we tried to find out more from the doctors, I passed for the strange one, they said it was just stress, tiredness, they gave him anxiolytics. But no one ever spoke of cognitive decline».
The lockdown was a tsunami. TO”Locked at home, without being able to sing in the choir, do sports, without relationships – continues Michela – it was a disaster. The situation has precipitated. Our battle today is that of many who struggle to be listened to. I don’t know if one early diagnosis something would have changed, but it certainly would have been different with help to assist him, less tortuous paths to get the 104. Everyone needs hope. And I thought that talking about it and making yourself available could be something that eased our pain. Because the only way to find a positive aspect in a bad situation is to support others». To date, the Morruto family has had the support of Cardiovascular research foundation for neurodegenerative diseases last May 30, concludes Michela, «we reached Senator Minasi thanks to the RaGi Association for Dementia (https://www.associazioneragi.org/) and Dr. Elena Sodano. One of the unsolved problems is that caregivers are left alone.’