It is in three parts. I would watch it, but I no longer have HBO. Personal-Budget-Cuts! LOL! Maybe it will come out on DVD? I hope someone in here, gets a chance to watch this.

Here is the trailer...

http://www.hbo.com/events/alzheimers/

I want to see this... it's going to be on May 10-12.

Cool, Aitan; Come back and report, will you?

After it airs the first time, it is supposed to be available to watch on your computer for free on HBO.com.

For those of you with Dish Network--This special is going to be shown as a free preview on May 10-12. You can find the information on channel 102 about the preview.

I also heard that the videos will be free on http://www.hbo.com/alzheimers/

I watched the 1st installment and I have to admit that I was in tears within the first 2 minutes of the program. I recognized and knew each of the people profiled -- some aspect of their symptoms reflected my own experience with my mom.

That said, I was also disappointed. I expected more about the impact on the family/advocate and how they had to adjust and accommodate their lives to "keep a closer eye on mom/dad," chauffeur and run errands after taking car keys away, choosing a NH/ALF, answering repetitive questions, etc. That aspect was largely ignored and IMHO it is just as relevant to any discussion of AD as are the manifestations of the disease itself. Hopefully it will be explored in depth when caregivers are profiled.

I've seen The Memory Tapes and the children's episode. I cried, of course - but something was bothering me also. In the children's episode (Grandpa) and in parts of the Memory Tapes it seemed as if the children were responsible for caring for the LO at times? I know they were trying to show how the disease affects kids, but it really did seem as if these young kids bore the sole responsibility of the LO's care at times. This bothers me.

Others may disagree, but not only is AD unpredictable as far as mood, but if I had kids, I really couldn't make them watch my mom on a regular basis. The disease is hard enough on the adults who are the caregiver I'm all for being honest about what it is with children, but I don't think they need to experience it by being the caregiver. I would think it makes for some very sad children.

Another item that bothered me was that Maria Shriver had just gotten done saying in the "Grandpa" episode that it was okay to not want to go see a LO in a nursing home, to not want to remember their LO like that. Then, they cut to the 2 girls in the car with their mother talking about how grandma was now. The younger girl said clearly she did not want to see her like that and the mother had no response. Next thing you know, the girls are there in the room trying to interact with grandma. So, are they saying that you should force them to see something they specifically ask not to see?

I don't know. I have a lot of mixed emotions about what I've seen so far. It certainly is a sanitized version of the disease - there is no poop, when told she cannot drive anymore, the woman is sad but doesn't say much, nobody stayed up for 2 days straight, nobody wandered and couldn't be found.

I'll tell you what - one of the segments was in Rochester, MI at the Sunrise facility there. Not a good ad for that facility at all. As beautiful as it is inside and outside, I saw nothing but people with AD sitting around and very little interaction between staff and residents except for the trivia game going on (The majority of the residents were beyond being able to play!). There was another segment filmed in another part of the country at what many would consider a normal nursing home (institutional looking), but the staff there were going along with the resident's idea that there was a strange woman in the mirror and killing the snakes in the wheelchair for her, even getting her a different wheelchair. Give me that facility anytime - at least it seemed like they knew the residents and cared.

I'll be honest I watched the first 20 minutes and then changed the channel. It was too sad to watch the reality that we live with each day being illustrated again. I think that show was important for raising awareness to people who have no clue what AD is, but as someone who has a LO with AD it was too tough to watch.

I just finished watching the last three segments. For awhile I was wondering if they were ever going to get to what dealing with AD was really like. But I think it showed more than any show I have ever seen. I cried throught the 2nd segment about Grandpa and I related to the persons in the caregiver segment. True they didn't cover all the details of what we go through caring for a person with alzheimers, but closer to the true reality.

Howdy, I never had the grandkids feeding Papa but they alway gave him a hug whenever they came over and before they left. Bill always got a big smile on his face with each hug, even though I know he had no idea who the kids were. I always watched closely with them because I never knew exactly what Bill would do. There was no way I would have ever turned any type of caregiving over to them. His moods were too inpredictable to trust. It was never a "go hug Papa" It was more of a "are you going to give Papa a hug?" I would never have made them do it if they didn't want to.
I didn't get the feeling that they were showing the grandkids as caregivers, but I did notice the part where the young girl said she didn't want to see grandma and thought she should not have had to see her. But I think they were just trying to show the kids feelings.

I didn't see the part about the snakes and the wheelchair and pretending to kill the snakes. There was a time when I did go along with Bill when he saw bugs crawling all over his food when he was in the hospital once. I had to kill the bugs and get him a can of pop and wipe all the bugs off of it before he would drink it. I didn't see the bugs but he did and they were real to him.

Aitan,
You're right about it being had to watch especially if you are a caregiver or someone you love has AD. I still will not watch a show where a child dies from leukemia and it's been 37 years since I went through that. Watching this one was very hard and I cried during the entire thing but I still watched it.

I say if you haven't watched it yet, it's worth the tears to do so.

Count me out on that stuff. Been there, done that, don't want to watch it in my living room and open up the wounds I have worked so hard to close.