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

Friday, April 17, 2020

alzheimers news-alzheimers and covid 19

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-ALZHEIMERS AND COVID 19
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when you take a bunch of old folks who are immunocompromised just from being old and with lots of chronic health conditions like heart disease heart failure strokes diabetes kidney disease liver disease immunosuppressive diseases like lupus rheumatoid etc and then add alzheimers on top of that
then
you put those folks into a facility of a hundred or more people just like that
well
when the covid 19 a highly contagious virus strikes fast like a cobra it leaves death in its path
well
the long term car facilities ie nursing homes or memory care centers or whatever you want to call then are a disaster just waiting to happen

those mostly old folks are already at risk for scabies staph infections bed bugs lice pneumonia tb flu and other contagious illnesses
why
its all in that first paragraph above

once the covid 19 gets in there it will and has spread like wildfire

so
my wife she and i have had this discussion

if i go into the long term care facility that means
i dont probably know that i am there
i cant dress myself
i cant or can barely feed myself
i cant groom myself
i will not get better
i will only get worse
so
its sink or swim when i go in there


i told her if i go in there when my time comes and i get the covid 19 dont let them send me to a hospital
when that happens its my time
just let me go
i am ok with going that way

she understands
i agree and do hereby consent so

we are about 2 weeks away from getting all our will and trust and other paperwork update done
when thats done
its all written down in one place for all to know what our wishes are

now
having said that
right now
my memory is normal
in fact my guess well i know my memory tests are better than many of you who are reading this
i am in good physical health
well i do have some endurance problems and shortness of breath from my covid 19 infection
that is gradually getting better

so
as i went to the emergency room that night
when asked what my health problems were i loudly said high blood pressure
i mumbled where they couldnt hear me
high cholesterol mci real quiet like
when asked about my meds i loudly said my blood pressure pill and cholesterol pill
i quietly mumbled my aricept (donepezil)
in fact i didnt use the word aricept just donepezil so maybe they wouldnt know what that was

i never mentioned the word alzheimers
why
i feel at 70 years old which i dont feel like im 70 years old i am in good shape physically and mentally
well before i got sick with this stuff

i didnt want them to restrict treatment in any way if i worsened
yes i would have agreed to have the tube put in if i worsened if it looked like i would come out on the other end all intact like i was before i got sick

i didnt want the word alzheimers to cloud up their thinking
i didnt want to get death paneled

an aside here
it irks me when i see folks write just let this covid 19 do its own thing
just let it run its course
what you are doing is asking nurses and doctors to be death panel decision makers
thats when your grandparents aunt uncles the disabled will be death paneled
but you are making those doctors and nurses make those decisions
this is done for herd immunity
the problem is you will lose a lot of the herd that you dearly love


now thats right now i feel that way
if
i go to long term care then thats not what i want
no iv no feeding tube no breathing tube just comfort care
understood

the organicgreen doctor

1 comment:

  1. Your words of wisdom during this crisis mean so much. You are living every day to the fullest. It pains me that you are experiencing this virus. Stay safe and give Joanne a hug for me.

    Dora from Texas🐷🐷🐷

    ReplyDelete