welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Monday, August 15, 2011

recheck, interview, mri, more, almost

RECHECK
today is recheck day with the neurologist i see in dallas
its been 8 months since i started the aricept (donepezil)
i have done ok on this medication except for problems
with sleep
i wake up too early but besides that i am having no significant
side effect to the medication

is the medication working
i dont know but i havent gotten worse in the last 8 months
so if this is alzhiemers disease causing my problems then
the symptoms appear not to have progressed in the last 8 months

(remember aricept (donepezil) doesnt slow the alzhiemers disease
process it only slows the symptoms from the disease and it will
eventually quit working)

only time will tell for sure

INTERVIEW
today i get interviewed about my diagnosis and how i am
approaching this
they want to know about my blogging on this and my desire
to educate people about this disease and how this is all
affecting my wife she and me
the interview will be for the newsletter from the
alzheimers research center
if its available on the internet ill post the link when its available

i also may have an interview in the future with one of the local
tv station this month or next month
will post the link for that when its available also

MRI
didnt think i would get the results of this mri last week but i did
get the report so i can post it
this is the third one i have had in the last 8 months
this mri was normal as were the last 2 that i had done
thats better than abnormal
an mri usually will not be abnormal this early in alzhiemers disease

one of the things they are looking for in this study in a change in
volume of the hippocampus on the undersurface of the brain that
can occur early on in mild cognitive impairment amnestic type due
to alzheimers disease

will have more mris in the future as part of the adni-2 study that
im in over the next 5 years

more as it happens

MORE
this thursday i have to undergo a 8 hour neuropsychological exam
that is being required by the disability insurance company that was
suppose to start paying me in april of this year
(its not only health insurance companies that suck)

even though i have had at least 2 good neuropsychological exams
done in the last year by a reputable institution (university of texas
medical school alzheimers research center) that show i have
short term memory loss
and im seeing a board certified neurologist for this problem and
am on medicine (aricept-donepezil) to slow the disease
symptoms down
they still want an independent neuropsychological exam done

at least the person im seeing is a reputable well liked
neuropsychologist here in austin

will report the experience later
the 3-4 hour exams i had were torture so this 8 hour test will probably
fry my brain
may have to increase my aricept on friday

ALMOST
well we almost have had rain here the last several days
we finally did not have a 100 degree day
the rain gods though are messing with us
they are teasing us with the clouds and the storms just north of us

guess they want us to suffer a little longer
guess since i added underground lines connecting all of my
tanks together that now it wont rain so i can see if they work
or see if they are leaking

its like when if you finally wash your car then it will rain
or if you hang out clothes then it will rain or
if you leave your car windows down to keep the car cool
then it will rain

think its because i did all the work to my rainwater tanks
that the rain gods dont want it to rain





the organicgreen doctor


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