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Livng with Alzheimer's: A personal journey begins

Ray Dedrick is living with Alzheimer's disease and has agreed to let us capture what days are like for him and his family as they navigate this devastating diagnosis.

It will be the most difficult journey of his life, but Ray Dedrick has agreed to share it with us.

At only 59 years old, Ray is suffering from a disease that is robbing him of his memory, his body, and eventually his life.

He is living with Alzheimer's disease and has agreed to let us capture what days are like for him and his family as they navigate this devastating diagnosis.

It started back in 2005, as he and his wife Tee were preparing for a mission trip to Romania.

"I had what I thought was a dizzy spell and I didn't dare tell anybody because I wanted to go. And it happened a couple of times over there," he said.

"He was having short term memory loss and that continued to get worse as time progressed. It would get shorter and shorter," said Tee.

Doctors eventually determined the symptoms were from a traumatic brain injury he suffered on the job in 1999.

In 2014, a neurologist prescribed Ray a drug for Alzheimer's disease, linking his early onset diagnosis to that concussion 15 years earlier.

"The next visit I was like 'He's thinking he has Alzheimer's'. I said that's not right. Right??" said Tee.

"She became desperately aware of the fact that 'Oh my gosh, my husband has early onset Alzheimer's,' said Ray.

The diagnosis was heart wrenching. But it hasn't stopped Ray from living a full life.

He works as a chaplain at East Tennessee racetracks, offering support and encouragement to what he calls his second family.

"I still have a wealth of knowledge that I can pass on to a younger generation that little by little I'm losing," he said.

He now has good days and bad days.

"Today is not too bad of a day. I remembered we had this coming up today," he said.

Then there are the days when he wakes up and doesn't know where he is or even what day it is.

"Things like what he ate for dinner last night. I have to think about it," he said.

Ray's short term memory is what is most impacted. His long term memory, things that happened decades ago, he remembers in detail. As an example, he knows the name of the first person to win the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" back in 1999. And not just his name-- but details like where the winner was was from and his job.

Ray and his family know they are not alone on this tough journey. A person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease every 66 seconds.

The non–profit Alzheimer's Tennessee is guiding them, from raising money and awareness to providing classes on how to manage the disease.

"What a wealth of knowledge. What you have to look forward to, this is what's coming up, here's what we can do to help," said Tee.

Ray is not hiding from his diagnosis. He and Tee participated in the Alzheimer's Tennessee walk last month. And he sported purple hair-- the color associated with the fight against Alzheimer's, on a day at the race track.

He lives by the mantra "It's all good."

"I'm scared for my family. I'm scared for what they're going to have to go through. Am I scared? No. I know I'm going to heaven when I die. I have nothing to be afraid of," he said.

For resources and support, visit the Alzheimer's Tennessee website.

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