Still Alice

On January 19th, Alice meets again with Dr. Davis. We learn that she has tried to move her appointment from the 19th; her students are taking her final exam that day, but more importantly, her mother and sister had died on that date thirty-two years prior, so she views it as an unlucky date. However, the next available appointment isn’t for another four weeks, so she is forced to take it.

As she goes through her own set of tests with Dr. Davis, she considers the similarity between her own current position and that of her students in the exam and the various times she had served as a control subject in similar tests with her graduate students, recognizing that her role has shifted from that of the control to that of “the subject being tested” (68). Upon completing the tests, Dr. Davis chastises her for not bringing someone with her, as previously requested, a reprimand that evaporates any “solid relief and confidence generated from her self-evaluated competence in the neuropsychological exams” (69).

After rattling off a list of all the things Alice doesn’t have, he informs her that, considering what has been ruled out in conjunction with her symptoms, it is likely that she has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.