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 1, 2022

alzheimers news-my alzheimers interviews


ALZHEIMERS NEWS-MY ALZHEIMERS INTERVIEWS

yesterday i was contacted about doing an interview with bloomberg news next week about my involvement in the biogen aduhelm clinical trial and my thoughts on the approval of aduhelm or aducanumab for treatment of alzheimers disease

a quick review
i have had 34 infusions in biogens aducanumab clinical trials
some were done at ut southwestern in dallas and the rest have been done at ucla
i received as it turned out 18 months of placebo and have now received 15 monthly infusions of the real drug aduhelm or aducanumab
i will receive at least another approximately 18 more infusions but the study will likely be extended long term

its my diagnosis and my involvement with the aduhelm studies that these interviewers are interested in 

recently i was interviewed by the financial times about all this 
the article should be published in a couple of weeks
a 30-40 minute interviewed will probably be reduced to about 2-3 paragraphs
i am always concerned when they do that since that can sometimes make you seem to say things you really didnt say
but usually these folks are good at what they do

so  yesterday this made me think about all the interviews i have done over the last 12 years since i was diagnosed


the one interview that stands out was my first one
it was by mary ann roser from the austin american statesman in 2011
she is an experienced writer who was thorough

she interviewed me for 3 hours at my house at the country n
she also interviewed my wife she the nurse who worked with me when i retired the office manager at the clinic i worked at the alzheimers organizations and several well known alzheimers researchers
she then wrote a lengthy several page article that was very well done

it was picked up by the associated press and was published at papers across the us
i had several friends and patients who contacted me letting me know it was in their local paper

the author and i still communicate with each other

they interviewed me several times afterwards

here is the link to the article
titled retired doctor tries to make the most of living with possibility of alzheimers disease


the ut southwestern alzheimers center had a video done about my story 
it has been nominated for awards 
it was very well done
they interviewed my wife she and me for about 3 hours at our country n
i was also interviewed at the alzheimers center for a couple of hours
the final video above was produced and has been viewed hundreds of times

the ut southwestern alzheimers center also did a well done interview with me and my medical providers for publishing in their quarterly newsletter

the article titled from physician to advocate is linked here
its starts on page two

i ;remember that picture 
i am standing in the memory interview room where i sat that first day doing my neuropsychological exam
i sat there not able to answer some of the questions
i looked out that window which the blinds were opened on and got cold and sweaty 
since
i knew that my time had arrived
i knew at that moment i had alzheimers
it took a few months of memory testing and labs and mri scans and amyloid pet scans and spinal taps to solidify the diagnosis
but
it was at that moment i knew 
i didnt need all those tests

i knew
i thought
im done
thats when i made my decision to stop practicing 
looking out that window in mid memory testing

another of my good interviews was actually by a reporter for a small town at that time now its much larger paper called the liberty hill independent

she was actually a well experienced writer
the article was about volunteering with a lot of it on my journey with my diagnosis

the interview was about an hour long
she also took this photo
the interview took place at the gardens attached to the local library

here is the link to the liberty hill independent article
titiled diagnosis alters doctors path but not his passion for helping


newspress

here in santa barbara the local newspaper has interviewed me twice since i have lived here
once on my diagnosis and the local alzheimers walk and another time on my thoughts on the aduhelm use in treating alzheimers and my involvement in the aduhelm research study 

here is the most recent article from the local paper
titled hope for alzheimers

i did a phone interview then later another reporter came to our condo and took pictures and did a short video interview


recently a few months ago i was contacted by the website being patient asking if they could do an interview with me about my diagnosis and my involvement with the aduhelm research study

the interview took about a hour and is linked here
titled some hope over no hope a retired doctor on alzheimers diagnosis and aduhelm trial 

at the bottom of the written interview is the video version
they also interviewed me prior to this interview

this website being patient is a good one to follow to help keep up with whats going on in the alzheimers world
the owner deborah kaen is a caregiver for her mom with alzheimers disease
she is living the caregiving role now

her being patient link is on my favorite blogs list

new york times

then last year the new york times called and wanted to interview me about my involvement in the aduhelm research study 
i was interviewed for about an hour
later a photographer came and took lots of pictures here at the condo and in my community garden

she was a good interviewer and it was obvious that she knew the subject she was writing about

the one hour was condensed to just a few paragraphs and photos
here is the link to the new york times article
titled alzheimers drug poses a dilemma for the fda

i have done several tv interviews usually associated with the alzheimers walks i was involved with here and in texas

i have had several high school and college students contact me for either written interviews or phone interviews about alzheimers and my diagnosis and my involvement in the alzheimers clinical trials
i enjoy these interviews the most

these interviews have led to more readership for my blog and to more contact with folks across the us asking questions about alzheimers disease
most are looking for hope of some kind

hope may be hard to find in the alzheimers world
but
when we find it we try to savor the moment


an update
i had my aduhelm infusion this week at ucla
so far so good
i have a mri in two weeks looking for any microbleeds 
i have no symptoms
i will have a tau protein pet scan in about 6 weeks to see if the tau tangles have dissolved some in my brain
later this year i will have another amyloid pet scan to see if the amyloid is being removed
i sure wish i could see what the scans looked like

my next infusion is in one month

hope it works

the organicgreen doctor

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