THINKING OF YOU ON YOUR BIRTHDAY
today is my younger brothers birthday
i got him a card and will send it to him today
im not sure if he will be able to know that i sent it to him
i tried to make it funny and with a funny picture on it so
that maybe in his alzheimers daze deep down somewhere
he can get some enjoyment from the birthday wish
he is in his 7th or 8th year of his alzheimers diagnosis and has
progressed so rapidly in the last 2 years
ive thought about him a lot in the last few weeks as i prepare
for my presentation on alzheimers at a alzheimers symposium
later this month
as ive read more and more about the early course of this disease
and what diagnostic tests are now becoming available and what
possible treatments may be available and what
we both might have done over our life time to have slowed this
disease in the two of us down some
we just didnt know
but
hopefully some of your out there or some of our relatives who are
younger our kids grand kids nephews nieces cousins friends are
listening to us to get involved and to do what can be done now
to slow the progress down
yes
im thinking about him today as i do everyday
but maybe more today since its birthday
happy birthday bro
hope you are in there somewhere so you can enjoy this your day
FINALS
off and on this weekend and thanks to the dvr i watched
three different final four ncaa tournamnets
the mens division 1 final four left me with only one team left in the
bracket
louisville
yes even my wife she picked them also
so in the end she guessed the final result just as well as i did
or my two sons
that just doesnt seem right
she doesnt really know does she
then i watched the division 3 finals with one of the teams that
is in the town i use to practice in
ive met the coach and have generally followed the program
over the years and only knew one of the players
they didnt win but i did see one of my former partners on the
bench as the team doctor
then the womens final four
those connecticut players seem to always be there dont they
even though this year they are such a young team
lookout for the next 3 years
ginos team will probably be there each of those years
guess he knows what hes doing
overall good basketball games
and
dang those girls sure are tall
ALZHEIMERS SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION PART 1
i will be doing a presentation on my story with possible alzheimers at the
alzheimers symposium in temple texas at the mayborn center
on april 30 2013 at 930 am
here is my presentation that will be posted in a four part series
over the next four fridays
my story
here is a video that was done by the alzheimers research center
at the university of texas southwestern medical school in dallas
alzheimers disease is a devastating progressive neurodegenerative disease for which
there is no cure
it is a fatal disease
how many of you here today have someone in your family with alzheimers disease
1 in 4 females will get alzheimers disease if you live long enough
1 in 8 males will get alzheimers disease if you live long enough
its the 6th leading cause of death in the united states
of the top 10 leading causes of death in the united states its the only one
for which there is no cure
it may be the disease that breaks our healthcare system
im speaking to you from three different perspectives
a family member whose mother died in the final stages of alzheimers disease
whose father although not officially diagnosed probably had it also
then my younger brother a year younger than i was diagnosed at 55 years old
and is now entering into the final stages of the disease
i am speaking to you as a family physician who has treated patients with
alzheimers disease although looking back now i did not do a good job
then im speaking to you as a patient today
my diagnosis is early mild cognitive impairment amnestic type that may be
due to alzheimers disease
ill tell you why as this talk proceeds
5 years ago i applied for long term care insurance and was evaluated and
received my insurance without a problem
during the mental status evaluation one test they did was they read me
10 words from 3 different word categories and asked me to repeat them
back to them
i got all 10 correct
then 2-3 years later because of my family history of alzheimers disease
and because of the fear of developing it i decided when i reached a
certain age that i would start having yearly evaluations with
neuropsychological evaluations and
mri scans or whatever was deemed necessary to check and make sure
i was not developing problems with my memory
i contacted the alzheimers research center at ut southwestern and talked
to kristin martin-cook and told her what i wanted to do and why
she said yes they could do that or i could enter the alzheimers disease
neuroimaging initiative study in the normal control group
and i would get those tests i wanted done plus other new tests that
were available in the studies-biomarkers for beta amyloid and tau
pet scans for glucose metabolism and for beta amyloid
i agreed so i went to dallas for testing
during the neuropsychological testing i was sitting at the desk like in
the video where i was doing the block test and looking out a window
when the examiner read me 10 words from 3 different word categories
and asked me to repeat them
the words entered my brain and most of them disappeared
i only could recall 4 of them
after a series of hints i was able to only recall 5 of them
whereas before i had gotten all 10 correct the first time
that is the moment a surreal moment when i knew that i had a problem
i also had other short term memory tests done that day and had
problems with all of them
it would be 3-4 weeks before i would get the results back so when i
got back to work i became extremely careful in everything i did
then 3 weeks later i got a phone call from kristen
dr nash i wanted to call and let you know what your results were before
you get this letter in the mail
it appears that you have short term memory loss thats greater than it
should be for your degree of education and your age
i really think you should see a neurologist
so i made an appointment with a neurologist there in 3 weeks
it was during this period of time that fall when i began to notice
some issues with my memory
i had trouble recalling things about patients that i should have remembered
i also had trouble reading cme material then taking the cme online test
no one my wife my nurse my colleagues my patients clinic employees
noticed any problems
but i did
and still do but they dont
the neurologist office asked that i get some tests done before the
office visit
here is the list of tests that i had done and they are the ones that
you should have done if you are being evaluated for memory loss
complete blood count
metabolic profile for electrolytes kidney function liver function and glucose
vitamin b12 level
syphilis antibody test
hiv test
tsh for thyroid function
urinalysis
screen for depression
neuropsychological exam or a shorter in office version
mri scan of the brain
HOW DO I GET TESTED
i frequently am asked this question by people when they
talk to me or via texts or on emails or on facebook or via comments
to this blog
sometimes its easy to do a self administered test or one
administered by a love one and then take it to your doctor
for them to look at
this weekend i got an email from a blog i follow that has 5 of the most common self tests that are recommended
the best of them is the sage test that ive written about
before
you can go to this link to see those 5 tests then click on
the ones that you are interested in
remember the sage test is the best one
then there is the 21 question test that ive also written about
before that can be viewed at this link
take one of these tests if you think you or someone else
has a problem
if the results show that there may be a problem
then i suggest you
make an appointment with your doctor
take a copy of the test you took with the results
if you have noticed problems or someone else has
write these down and show them to the doctor
in tomorrows blog i will include a slide from my presentation
i will be doing in a month at an alzheimers symposium
that tells you exactly what tests you should have done
if there appears to be a memory problem
hopefully this will be helpful
remember my problem with short term memory was
identified only because i had a normal mental status evaluation
5 years ago when i applied for long term care insurance
then 3 years later when i tried to enter the alzheimers disease
neuroimaging initiative study in the normal control group
i had developed short term memory problems identified
on the studys neuropsychologial tests
my short term memory loss is very early but further evaluation
probably has identified the cause as possible alzheimers diesease
remember if you or some one else has noticed a problem with
your memory that is not due to the age related memory issues that
we all get then you do have a problem and should seek an
evaluation by your doctor
tomorrow i will do the first of 4 blogs on my presentation that i
will be doing in 1 month
if you are interested in alzheimers disease you might want to
read those blogs on the next 4 fridays
also i will be entering my 2 year followup of the study that
im in and will be blogging about the testing as it happens this
month
neuropsychological test
neurology examination
lots of blood work including blood biomarkers for alzheimers
spinal tap for beta amyloid and tau
mri scan of the brain
glucose metabolism pet scan of the brain
beta amyloid pet scan of the brain
ill discuss each and what they mean as im having it done
