Monday, April 13, 2015

White Mass Disease

White Mass Disease is a neurological disorder, where blood cannot (or for some reason does not) travel to the end of an individual's neurons. These organic-jellyfish looking cells use tendrils to communicate, brushing along the little finger edges to preserve memories and facets of personality. Neurons tell how spicy that pepper is, so eyes water or tongue tastes soap. Or do not.

They also control all the muscle memory for the body. The jellyfish in the brain tell the throat how to swallow, the facial muscles not to droop, the eyes when the person seen is loved.

White Mass is not well known, and presents like a series of tiny strokes. And Alzheimer's. And dementia. But only the worst aspects of all, as sometimes, some things can come back. And what is taken varies on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, as if the memory floats in some dark ocean, seeking to be rediscovered.

So far, in three years, my mom has lost the ability to walk, stand, sit, chew, remember the day, time,  how to read, write, sign her name, the joy of peppers, the taste of food to WMD.

But there is the small, tender hope she may remember again.

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