In her quiet, sunny, second-floor bedroom in Orono, Dair Gillespie rests all day long in an adjustable medical bed, no longer able to endure the rigors of getting up for meals, bathing or even a change of scene.
At 77, Gillespie, a retired professor of sociology, suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease, compounded by a significant stroke in 2013 and a broken hip in 2016. The combination has left her completely helpless, unable to control her fragile body or communicate her wispy thoughts. She is wholly dependent on a cadre of professional caregivers and the loving ministrations of her spouse, Ann Leffler, also retired from an academic career in sociology.
Frail though she is, Gillespie has a small but important role to play as she nears the end of her life. As one of just a few people in Maine certified to use medically prescribed marijuana to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, she is, potentially, helping to pave the way for others to follow suit.
Each morning at 10:30, Leffler, who is 70, squeezes a few green drops of cannabis tincture into Gillespie’s mouth, doing her best to deposit it under her tongue.
“It’s best if she can absorb it sublingually, but she usually just swallows it,” she remarked, administering the dose during a recent visit from the Bangor Daily News. Gillespie accepted the tincture calmly, holding it for several seconds before swallowing with no sign of distaste. The tincture in the bottle smelled mild and fresh.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “77-year-old using cannabis for Alzheimer’s is ‘much less fearful’,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Meg Haskell, please follow this link to the BDN online.
