organicgreendoctor: my story revisted #219-still a sad story

organicgreendoctor: my story revisted #219-still a sad story: MY STORY REVISITED #219-STILL A SAD STORY that is me talking at our family reunion about alzheimers this was about the time my younger broth...

my story revisted #219-still a sad story

MY STORY REVISITED #219-STILL A SAD STORY

that is me talking at our family reunion about alzheimers
this was about the time my younger brother had died in the awful final stages of alzheimers

below is another sad story about jim garner a veteran and father who died from alzheimers not long after i wrote this blog below
his wife wrote a blog about their journey with the disease
i teared up many a time when i read her blog

he has since died like my younger brother in the final stage of alzheimers
he left like my brother kids a wife a lot of bad memories of his journey with the disease

in my blog below many of the links i used are now not available
here is a link to an article about jim garners story 

we now have 7 million people with alzheimers in the usa
up from 5 million when i wrote this blog
__________
11-13-2015
ALZHEIMERS NEWS-A SAD STORY

alzheimers affects 5 million+ people in the usa
alzheimers is the 6th leading cause of death in the usa
some think its the 3rd and of the top 10 causes
of  death its the only one without a treatment or cure
alzheimers will develop in 5 people in the usa
while you are reading todays blog
alzheimers will break medicare soon in the usa
if a treatment or cure is not found

those are some alzheimers facts folks

this week was veterans day on wednesday
i saw a lot of pictures and posting about veterans
many were my relatives
some were my siblings


then this week on his wifes facebook page
up pops this picture
and
an article about the plight of this veteran
as he and his family struggles with the financial
and emotional devastation this disease causes
he is in his 50s

here is the newspaper article of jims story

read it
and
weep

his wife writes a blog called
missing jim  confessions of an alzheimers wife
a gut wrenching read
it is on my list of blogs i follow on my blogs home page

read it
and
weep

i think his story resonates so much with me
since
it seems to mirror so close
my younger brothers course with this terrible
alzheimers disease

both were young and robust
there cant be anything wrong with these guys they said
they look so healthy
they were wrong of course

now he is a veteran
retired after his 20+ years with full benefits
except
apparently none of these benefits are helping them
with the expenses of his care
since he now has to be placed in a long term facility

he has two young children
you can imagine the devastation they feel from
losing their dad to this awful disease

he has reached that stage where he has become a
danger to himself
if youve had a loved one with this disease so affected
you understand what im writing about

the point is reached where its best for all involved
to move them out of the home to the facilities
a gut wrenching decision that has to be made

like most americans they are not prepared or able to
provide the monies it is taking to provide for his care

take a few moments and read this story from
the newspaper article

if you have it in your heart make a donation to his
gofundme page

www.gofundme.com/jimgarner

their goal will be to raise $60000
this will pay for about 333 days of his care
in a regular nursing home
a true memory care center where he needs to be
is much more than that

he im afraid will probably need several more years of care
as he falls down that downward slope of
the alzheimers decline that all with this disease takes

yes
a sad story
that im sorry to say
will have a sad sad ending
__________

since i wrote this blog there is starting to be hope for slowing down the disease
research studies have shown that aggressively taking care of your health like i started when i was diagnosed in 2010 can slow down the disease or if you start doing it even earlier in life can actually prevent the disease

i have spent a lot of time thinking about when i reach the stage that jim reached and my brother reached in that last stage
i guess it doesnt matter since i wont be around mentally 
but
i hope my family and friend are prepared

i have gotten a good 15 years out of life since i was diagnosed in good health with my memory intact
if i can get 5 more years like this i will be happy 
real happy

i have removed all of the amyloid plaques from my brain
luckily i stared the antiamyloid treatment real real early in my disease so thats when it can have its greatest effect
so far it looks like these drugs are effective in slowing down the decline as we now have people who have taken them for over 5 years

coming soon are approval to use leqembi as an injectable you can give at home each month to keep the amyloid plaques from reforming
thats a treatment i am waiting for approval 

also their are several drugs in clinical trials that remove tau tangles and treat neuroinflammation

these combo of drug may even slow the disease down more

my most recent memory test ie moca test is normal as it has been now for several years
it was not normal at the beginning of all this 

i just hope that my disease doesnt take off before these new treatments become available

when i die from alzheimers disease in the future and you read about my story dont feel sad
feel happy 
feel happy that i seemed to have slowed down the disease enough to enjoy at least another normal 15 years

i dont want my story to be a sad sad story 

yes be happy for me

the organicgreen doctor

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-can you smell that

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-can you smell that: ALZHEIMERS NEWS-CAN YOU SMELL THAT that is an upright rosemary that we harvest regularly to donate with our produce donations along with oth...

alzheimers news-can you smell that

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-CAN YOU SMELL THAT

that is an upright rosemary that we harvest regularly to donate with our produce donations along with other herbs like basil oregano sage and thyme
all smell so good
so they tell me

sitting on the picnic tables are a group of kids from a summer class working on arts and crafts using flowers and herbs from our garden

my wife she asks me that all the time and i have to say
no i cant smell it
in fact
i dont smell anything usually
i must admit thats a good thing sometimes
it also also has affected my sense of taste
i have to cook by a recipe and cant season things to taste since i usually cant taste the seasonings
i can barely smell a fresh cut handful of fresh green rosemary
if its a small sprig and i dont rub it or crush it i cant smell it

we grow a thai lime in our orchard that chefs use the leaves to cook with
the lime fruit can be easily rubbed and has a strong real strong citrus smell that is elucidated when you rub it
however
i cant smell it at all
folks have to be careful if they rub the lime and stick it under their nose
it is a strong strong citrus scent

not for me 
none at all

why is that

there are two possible explanations

i had a bad case of covid 5 years ago and had covid another time after that
it was after that i totally lost my sense of smell

covid is notorious for wiping out your sense of smell 
some folks get it back 
some folks dont
im afraid im in the dont category

also another reason i might have lost my sense of smell is that i have mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers disease

the loss of the sense of smell is one of the first signs of alzheimers

the olfactory nerve or the smeller nerve as i call it is a direct connection form the nose to the part of the brain where alzheimers disease first starts out

in fact there are new potential treatments for alzheimers that comes as a nasal spay since the drug can travel up the olfactory nerve up to the brain where alzheimers starts

in this article researchers describe what may be happening
mictoglia immune cells in the brain attack the nerve ending of the olfactory bulb and another region and eats them up causing the loss of smell

it doesnt come back
the loss of sense of smell can occur before memory issues occur

so
is my loss of smell from having covid
maybe
or
is it from my diagnosis

maybe its both

the organicgreen doctor