Real People, Real Progress: Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Patient Challenges Her Brain

“I’m preparing for a better tomorrow.”

When Peggy H. received a diagnosis of Early-Stage Alzheimer’s a year and a half ago, she felt like her world changed in a second. With a supportive husband and daughter, she had spent years recovering from the medical aftermath of a car accident, as well as three spine surgeries. Now there was one more thing to worry about.

But Peggy doesn’t take anything lying down, and with this diagnosis, she was determined to do all she could to keep her mind active.

She saw Constant Therapy mentioned on Facebook and decided to give it a try. Within a short time, she was hooked. In her own words: “GREAT app! It’s helping me get my brain to work harder because I have early stage Alzheimer’s. The app begins with a series of things to do. When you have done those, the app makes the choice to give you something else. Every day use is encouraged, and you can use it as often as you like…..once a day is fine, but you can use it three times a day….four times a day….this a WONDERFUL app! Give it try! I am VERY glad I did!”

Peggy says she does exercises with Constant Therapy on her iPad at least once a day, if not more. She likes the variety of exercises in Constant Therapy that relate to real-life situations (counting change, reading maps, telling time, and more) and the fact that the tasks change and get more difficult as she moves through the program. Right now, her favorites are instruction-sequencing tasks, which are designed to help with memory and planning.

Peggy says, “At one point, I was ready to give up. One of the tasks seemed too difficult, and I felt defeated. But the Constant Therapy staff convinced me to keep trying. I learned that my brain was working even if I was not able to complete every task. I went back to work on Constant Therapy and I am continuing to do the tasks and not worry about the things I find difficult. My brain thanks me.”

To supplement her homework on Constant Therapy, Peggy also works in her garden every day, reads the news, curls up with her dog, and listens to music.

She says she knows she cannot permanently hold off the long-term effects of Alzheimer’s, but feels that by challenging her brain using Constant Therapy now, she’s “preparing for a better tomorrow”.

Her advice to others in a similar situation? “’Challenge your brain and get support! Do something you haven’t done before, read the news every day (or read the comics if you can’t read the news), try Constant Therapy, and most of all, take one day at a time.”