important day

IMPORTANT DAY
this is an important day today for me
in my fight against the possibility of having alzheimers disease

this morning i leave at 500am to make the 3 1/2 hr drive to
the alzheimers research center at ut southwestern in dallas
for my first of several appointments today


the first one is a follow up on my annual visit for the
adni study or alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative study
where i have several annual tests done
i had mentioned two months ago that funding was delayed or
discontinued for this study long term
this is the largest and most important study thats ever been done
on alzheimers disease
hundreds of research articles have be published from the data
yes some of my data is in there from this adni study

so today i get to repeat a lot of what was done in august
lots of questions especially memory questions
lots of blood drawn for rna and dna analysis chemistry lab tests
alzheimers blood test etc
an examination by a neurologist
then
i am so lucky
i get to repeat the much dreaded torture test
the neuropsych test
the examiner and i have become friends she has given
me this test so often

then
on another date next month i get an mri scan of the brain to see
if any brain shrinkage has occurred or especially if the area
where alzheimers starts the hippocampus has shrunken at all


then sometime this morning i do an interview for a new research
study called the A4 study
AntiAmyloid in Asymptomatic Alzheimers study

basically they are looking for folks 65-85 yrs old
normal mental status
with positive biomarkers-abnormal pet scan for beta amyloid
(they do this scan on all volunteers)

then the selected folks will receive what i call the alzheimers
vaccine solanezumab as an infusion for 36 months
or a placebo
no placebo for me please

if it works it will remove beta amyloid from the brain and the
disease process will be slowed down or stopped
several other studies are going on similar to this all over the world

you would think folks would be jumping in line for this study
a potential game changer in alzheimers treatment and prevention
but
no they are having trouble finding folks to join the study

me im el numero uno in line for this study
up front i am

if you are even remotely kin to me you probably are a candidate
for this study

please if you know someone who may qualify
click on this link for more information on how to volunteer
we cannt find an answer unless you volunteer
in texas its ut southwestern and baylor college of medicine houston
in california its ucd, uci, ucla usc, ucsd, ucsf etal
in okla its tulsa university
look your state up for the nearest locale
ark its ut southwestern in dallas or tulsa university in okla


then after lunch today i meet with the neurologist that sees me
at ut southwestern for my annual followup visit
this is not a research visit
its the real deal like when you see your doctor
i chose to be followed there instead of in austin since it has
worked out better for me coordinating my care

i mainly go to get my refill for my aricept (donepezil) which
may be slowing down my symptoms i hope


examiner.com

then
i plant to discuss a new study from ucla
i mentioned it in last fridays blog
its called
reversal of cognitive decline a novel therapeutic regimen
by dr dale bredesen
i plan to do a longer more involved blog on this on friday

basically its using life style changes ive written about before
then based on evaluation and labs using vitamins and supplements
i counted 16 of them total

his results
9 out of 10 folks studied got better
the one that didnt was a more advanced alzheimers patient in a later
stage of the disease
the other folks were early like me or more advanced then i am

so i think it may be beneficial and worth trying
whats to lose right

i will discuss my getting on this regimen with her
even i think if it means i cant do the A4 study or the adni study
thats how important this may be

so today is an important day for me
a crossroads maybe
a cure probably not but more of a way to slow down
and delay things

the organicgreen doctor

didnt make it, help us

DIDNT MAKE IT
yesterday i was looking forward to going to ut southwestern to
the alzheimers disease research center to do my annual
followup visit for the adni or alzheimers disease neuroimaging
initiative
but
i didnt make it
because
the night before i could not go to sleep
1000pm then 1100pm  then midnight then 100am then 200am
i mean 2 eyelid open not being able to go to sleep
then
i dozed off awakening
i mean wide awake at 400am
knowing we needed to leave in a hour at 500am to make
the long drive to dallas for the appointment

no way i thought as i got up
there is no way i can make that drive and stay awake
and
there is no way i will be able to do my 2 hr neuropsych test at
1100am and be at my best
my most alert self
heck im already working at a deficit there 2 standard deviations below
what is normal for my age and degree of education

so to be accurate and to be fair to the study and to make sure
i didnt fall asleep driving
i canceled my appointment that morning
with the plans to return again in the next few weeks

why couldnt i go to sleep
wasnt nervous at all about going
didnt nap too much the day before in fact i cut back some on that
didnt drink a lot of coffee late or eat a lot of chocolate candy late
which would let the caffeine in all that do its thing

i take aricept (donepezil) each morning and i sometimes will
have the problem of insomnia but not this bad
it seems as if there is too much aricept in that pill that day
maybe the quality control sucked that day it was made
thats what it feels like
when i first started taking aricept (donepezil) this is the way it
made be feel only this was the worse

one thing is of course when you are in my shoes
is that one of the things that happens with alzheimers disease as
it progresses is that it begins to alter sleep patterns such that
sometimes a person with the disease cant sleep at all at night
that
i am afraid was what i was and am worrying about

i dont want to be one of those nighttime wondering folks you
read and hear about

this morning i read this article that said that 7 hrs is the sweet spot
on the amount of sleep you need to get each night
a recent memory test study showed that those who got 7 hrs
did better than those who got less than that and
those who got 8 hrs of sleep

for me 2 hours just didnt cut it last night

HELP US
many of you know that i do volunteer work for the
williamson county habitat for humanity
i do the landscaping for the houses trying to do the best we can
with limited funds
we get some money left over at the end for landscaping but
sometimes that money gets siphoned off since the landscaping is
done last

so i have set up a crowd funding site just for the landscaping for the
next habitat build in jarrell texas
any money raised will be used only for this houses landscaping
our goal  is to  make the yard as xeric as possible but to make it
attractive to the eye and have it as the best yard in the neighborhood

so please go to my site at gofundme to read about it
and to make a donation if you are able to
so far we have raised $200 in rock donations and $100 in donations

click here to donate
landscape for habitat for humanity

the organicgreen doctor

its that time again

ITS THAT TIME AGAIN
this will be the fourth time i go through all these tests
i did them when i started 3 years ago
then i do them every year


i am a study subject in the early mild cognitive impairment
group in the largest alzheimers disease research study ever
done
its called the adni or alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative
its a multicenter center study that takes the data it collects and
once its all entered each year it is readily available to researchers
all over the world
hundreds of research studies have been written from this data

much of the newer stuff thats known on alzheimers disease
comes from this study
the new treatment studies that are starting up now uses the
information from the adni study to guide their studies

today i will have done
blood work like you usually will get at a doctors visit like a cbc
and a metabolic profile and a urinalysis
as part of another study they will run a new alzheimers blood test
they are working on that will identify folks who will get alzheimers
looking at protein markers and inflammatory markers comparing
what they find with the other tests and scans i have done
right now the test is about 90% accurate


a full neuropsychological test that takes about 2 hours to do
its the hardest test to do for the study and the one i dread the
most
i jokenly call it the torturre test
i dont even mind the spinal tap
this will be the 6th neuropsychological test that i have done for
this study
so i know when i take them if i have gotten worse or just stayed
the same
so far my results have been fairly stable
i know that if i have alzheimers disease that there is a point in the
future when a drop off will start to occur
they dont even have to look at my results
i can tell them the results when i walk out of the room

this year i dont get an mri
i have had 5 mris so far in this study
they all have been normal
they are looking at the under surface of the brain at the hypothalamus
to see if it has shrunken at all
thats where alzheimers disease all starts
right there

i also dont get the glucose metabolism test pet scan or the
amyvid pet scan this year
both these will show abnormalities in glucose metabolism or
in beta amyloid accumulation in the brain if alzhiemers is present
i dont get these pet scan results as they are protected by the study

then i dont get the spinal tap this year
they check for beta amyloid and tau protein accumulation in the
spinal fluid
abnormal levels of these two proteins occur in alzheimers disease
i had my fluid tested three years ago and its abnormal
last year when i had my tap done i donated the fluid to an ms study
that they desperately needed fluid for
forgoing a 2 year followup at a private lab which would have
given me another point on the curve to look at

this year i will discuss with them
about trying to qualify for one of the new treatment studies that
are starting up using one of the new alzheimers vaccines
called solanezumab or one using nasal insulin or one using bace inhibitors

these are three of the new ways that if they work a patient could
be treated early on in the disease or even before symptoms start
a lot of hope is put into these studies

plus i will always continue doing those things we all should be
doing to stay healthy
and keep taking my aricept (donepezil)

the organicgreen doctor

one thousand

ONE THOUSAND
today as i looked at the counter on my blog its said
999
so when i publish this blog in a few minutes
it will flip over to 1000

i guess thats like when your car flips over to 1000000

when i think about it
i wonder how in the heck did i think of all those things
to write about
and
for someone who doesnt consider himself to be a writer
it still seems unreal that i could have written about
that many things
1000
who would have thought it

this blog started over three years ago when i was still
in practice
i had being thinking about doing one but had never
taken the step to get started
so
one saturday i was outside working in the yard
when i came in for lunch my wife she said
you need to watch this story i dvred about this
lady who wrote this blog that had become extremely
popular

my wife she said you could do that you know

so i sat down dirty clothes and all
and signed up my blog on google
and started blogging

my original purpose was to write about organic gardening
rainwater harvesting solar power recycling green living
and to add a splash of medical stuff using my day to day
experiences in my office to write about the medical stuff


then after a few months i got diagnosed with mild
cognitive impairment amnestic type thought to be from
alzheimers disease
had to quit practicing medicine
was placed on aricept donepezil for the diagnosis
entered as a study subject in the alzheimers disease
neuroimaging initiative (adni) the largest and most
important study ever done on alzheimers disease
a real life changing event

i redirected the focus of this blog some to alzheimers disease
to educate folks about the disease
and
to write about what happens to me with my diagnosis
and how i feel about it
and how my wife she and i deal with it
over the following time ahead when i can continue to write

my condition seems stable maybe a slight drop off in things
some
im hoping to get into a treatment study soon that may show
some promise in slowing down the disease
time will tell on that

the two hardest blogs i have written were

the last day thanks blog

and

the one about my younger brother joe
who had lost his battle with alzheimers disease
even today when i go back to read those blogs i tear up
they also have been two of my most read blogs


another blog i wrote about abbie
a young middle school former patient of mine
about her life being born without
a left lower arm and how she perseveres with everything
she does
she is an amazing student for whom i have a lot of admiration


i hope that i have educated you folks about alzheimers disease
helping you to know what kind of workup needs done
what treatments are available
what research is being done
what you can be doing nowfor yourselves your family
to slow down or prevent the disease
and
what resources are out there for you to help deal with the diagnosis

several people have been routed to alzheimers research studies
thanks to this blog


i also think ive infected quite a few folks with the rainwater collection
virus
something we need more of in this droughty weather we have right now


i also hope that i have inspired and educated you about organic gardening
and have inspired you enough to go out and try it in your yard


then i hoped that i have made you smile occasionally
and

i do want to apologize to my wife she
for all the times ive picked on her
shes a good sport she is
and
she is a good wife

heres to another 1000 postings
and
heres to finding a cure for alzheimers disease


the organicgreen doctor