PCA Alzheimer's and Crafting

Welcome to my newest blog.  This necessarily will be very different from my original main blog, Kathryn’s Knitting. 

I used to be a more than adequate crafter.  I loved knitting and crochet especially but also sewing and rug making and actually I was a not too bad mathematician in the dim past!

But that was before my diagnosis of PCA Alzheimer’s Disease. PCA stands for Posterior Cortical Atrophy and is a form of Alzheimer’s disease which causes atrophy of the posterior part of the cerebral cortex resulting primarily in problems with visual and spatial processing.  As with all dementias it is obviously progressive.  It is the variant which Terry Pratchett had and since he went public with his diagnosis it’s become more widely recognised.

It causes me to see things which aren’t there and not see things that are.  So you can imagine how this affects all aspects of crafting! The needle won’t go in the right hole nor the hook in the right stitch.  Picking up a dropped stitch is nearly impossible.  However, my sense of touch is so far unaffected so most of what I can do, I do by feel.  Crochet is seemingly at the moment beyond me entirely.  I hope I can persevere although obviously things are only going to get worse. 

There are lots of other things that I’m also finding difficult, not least reading and writing.  Even my own handwriting is proving elusive.  I’m trying to find work arounds to help and am experimenting with some of the accessibility aspects of the computer like dictation.