I dunno. With Alzheimer's, you lose your ability to create short term memories, but your long term memories remain intact. One sufferer quipped, "I get to meet someone new every day!" So the question is, do dementia sufferers even realize, that they have dementia . . . ?
A relative recently died of terminal lung cancer. She suffered in pain for a year, and knew that there was no hope. Now THAT really sucked. I'm wondering if I was bat-shit crazy, if I would even have the sense to know that I was definitely going to die in pain, really soon. Just pump me up with pain killers, and let me dream away the last days, in a sea of opiates . . .