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

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

my story revisited #177-this video bothered me this morning

MY STORY REVISITED #177-THIS VIDEO BOTHERED ME THIS MORNING

once a week i look at an old blog posting on alzheimers and read it
i then write a blog about what i think about it years later
this old blog below is 8 years old
i was about 2 years away from starting in the biogen aducanumab clinical trial where i would eventually get infusions of aducanumab that i am receiving now
initially i got 18 months of placebo then 6 months of low dose aducanumab before the study was canceled around the start of the pandemic
it would be almost 2 years before it was restarted

i looked at this nice easy to understand video below on what happens with alzheimers disease this morning

this nice simple 3 minute video actually bothered me
it even brought some tears to my eyes

i realize that i lost almost 3 years of aducanumab treatment that could have slowed things down even more for me
lost time that allowed the amyloid to stay there doing its damage for those 3 years
how much time did i lose

as i watch the video it talks about the disease in the hippocampus 
it actually attacks the entorhinal cortex before that
this affects ones sense of smell
this loss of smell can be the first thing one notices with alzheimers disease
i have totally lost my sense of smell
i have contiguous rhinorrhea or runny nose
both are signs of early alzheimers
i also had covid twice which can cause this
also my aricept or donepezil i have been on also can cause this
i am hoping for post covid being the cause but i am afraid it is not

my short term memory seems to be ok
when you have this diagnosis you become hyperacute to subtle things
i think at times it is affecting my short term memory
it also could be aging which does the same thing
my memory testing i have in a couple of week lasts several hours
i will know when i take this where i am with my short term memory

next it moves to the language center
i have noticed some problems with word finding and names
but also this is normal for you when you get older
is it the disease or normal aging

next it moves to the planning part of the brain
i seem to be ok there

next it moves to the mood and emotion center
i feel laid back all the time
i rarely get real bad but sometimes i probably should
it may be the disease or it may be the effect of the aricept or donepezil
i am dreading when the disease hits this area harder
it becomes hard for families and caregivers when this happens
i apologize now to yall when i hit this stage

next it moves to the area that makes sense of things it sees smells and senses
i have noticed that at times i dont recognize some peoples faces
its happened a few times recently 
it called face blindness or facial agnosia
it could be the disease advancing to this area

next it hits long term memory
that usually goes last
i have noticed some old term memories i have lost
that could be normal aging also
or
it may not be

now 
over the next two weeks i will have an amyloid pet scan of my brain
it will show how much amyloid plaque has been removed

then i will have a tau protein pet scan
where the tau is located in the brain is where the alzheimers disease is active
eg
if it is in my mood emotional center then i would know that yall need to be ready
my personality is going to change
if it the tau is in my hippocampus then yall will notice my short term memory will be fading

of course if i could see my scans i could predict what is going to happen to me in the near future
it would help my family and i to be ready for whats coming

i have asked for permission to see the scans
however
if it happens it would be months from now

thats why this video saddened me this morning

watch this video 
its a 3 minute easy to watch easy to understand video


_________
02-15-2015
WHAT IS ALZHEIMERS DISEASE
Image result for what is alzheimer disease
i found this video on youtube that describes what happens
in alzheimers disease
what happens when it starts then how it spreads

where does it start
then
where does it go

if you have ever looked at the
seven stages of alzheimers 
on the alzheimers associations website
then
you can take each stage
see on the video where in the brain
the damage is occurring
that is making the disease do
what its doing at that stage

this is a 3 minute video
if you have a loved one with the disease
or
if you have had someone with the disease
or
if you just want to know more
then
click on this link below for
the best alzheimers disease video on what happens

its short
simple
explains it well

Image result for what is alzheimer disease
what is alzheimers disease video

please share to those who need to know more
__________ 

i have 4 trips to ucla in the next 4 weeks for testing
i do my #31 infusion of aduhelm or aducanumab 
then i do another mri
then i do an amyloid pet scan that shows if the amyloid plaques are all gone
then i do a tau protein pet scan another day that will show where the tau tangles are in the brain
this is the one that will tell where the disease will start causing problems
then 
the testing i really dont like is the memory testing for several hours
i also have blood testing
i also have a neurology exam

what i wouldnt give to see the results
maybe one day

the organicgreen doctor

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