on sunday i will pause and think about the two mothers
that have been important in my life
this is my mother
she would be 90 years old
she raised 8 children
the wife of a baptist minister
she was loved by all of her kids and all that knew her
she was a nurse and loved her profession
she was devastated by alzheimers disease in the last stages
of her life but
we remember her today during the best times
the other person
is my wife she
shes a good mother and a good wife and
a good sport for allowing me to pick on her
in this blog
shes a special person
will be thinking of her on mothers day
love you
POST ABBIE
what response to the blog on abbie
it is a special story
pass it on to those who would benefit from reading it
when you think you cant do something in life just think of abbie
you can do it
she did and does
AD CLASSIFICATIONS
there are three new levels in the new diagnostic classification
for alzheimers disease
pre clinical azheimers disease-you and no one else notices anything
mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers disease-you and others notice changes
dementia due to alzheimers disease-those changes are more obvious
the preclinical phase can last for several years before symptoms start
the mild cognitive impairment starts subtly then advances to more
obvious symptoms after the process has been smouldering in your brain
for all those years
dementia due to alzheimers disease occurs when those processes start
damaging the brain and start snowballing in their effects
its the downhill roll that occurs with alzheimers disease
preclinical
the red line the 1st line
beta amyloid starts to form and accumulates in the brain
if my younger brother had tests in his mid to late forties on his spinal
fluid
they would have found decreased levels of beta amyloid
and on a beta amyloid pet scan they may have found some accumulation of
beta amyloid in his brain
my beta amyloid in the spinal fluid is reduced
i dont know my results of the research beta amyloid pet scan but plan
eventually to have the amyvid pet scan for beta amyloid
the orangey line the 2nd line
the synapses those nerve connections in the brain start to get damaged
if you measure glucose metabolism in the brain at this stage you may start
to see some loss of glucose uptake on a fdg glucose metabolism pet scan
at the beginning of this he would still be working without noticing anything
and
later as it progresses up the red and orangey line he will began to notice
some subtle things that others wont notice
this is where i enter the picture with the very early noticing of things
my fdg metalbolism test is normal
the green line the 3rd line
the damage is done to the nerve cell
things unravel in the cell and release a substance called tau
which can be measured in the spinal fluid
as the green line progresses upwards the symptoms he notices become
more obvious to him but probably not to others
the beta amyloid would be increasing in his brain and decreasing in the
spinal fluid
his tau protein levels would be increasing in the spinal fluid
he was in the middle of his second career as a policeman
i entered above and this is where i am now
my tau protein is increased and is in the borderline range
mci
the blue line the 4th line
the damage is occurring and on a mri there starts with subtle
changes in volume in the brain in the area of the hippocampus
that controls short term memory
at this stage the symptoms are becoming obvious to my brother and to
those around him
he actually sought medical help but was mostly ignored
i am not at this stage yet but am just where the purple line the 5th line
is beginning
the purple line the 5th line
this is where things start to take off
cognition begins to show up as worsening
the black line the 6th line
this is clinical functioning
this is how well your are functioning in the real world
as this line takes off and crosses the 2nd dotted line is where my
younger brother was officially diagnosed
short term memory was a problem
getting lost driving was a problem
at this point spinal fluid would show high tau protein and
low beta amyloid
fdg glucose metabolism pet scan would show progession of the decreased
uptake of glucose by the brain
a beta amyloid pet scan (like the amyvid) would show more involvement
of the brain with the beta amyloid plaques
a mri would show some brain shrinkage and changes in the hippocampus
he would have to quit working at this point
their life just changed significantly
after this point the lines all continue to increase and things just
get worse
where exactly am i
im at the first dotted line and if i follow my younger brothers path
i am 5-10 years behind him
hope its the later number
get tested if you have symptoms
the oganicgreen doctor
