my story revisited #164-yes they are better

MY STORY REVISITED #164-YES THEY ARE BETTER

i still remember sitting there over 12 years ago staring at those pictures
they might as well been blank pieces of paper
i knew those pictures but i couldnt remember what they were
it made a me break out in a sweat
i had just a few minutes before not been able to remember those words they read to me
i got about half of the words right
2 years prior to this i remembered all the words read to me
3 years later when i saw those pictures on the neuropsych exam i knew them
but i couldnt recall them that day

those pictures were of a
sphinx
hammock
pelican
pretzel
and others i couldnt remember

when i repeated the neuropsych exam each year in the adni study i use to just chuckle and smile remembering how i couldnt remember them before as i now identified each one correctly

today 13 years later my memory tests my moca test and mmse test are all in the normal range
i usually dont miss any questions
you can miss 3 and still be normal on the moca

they had let me review my moca scores so i could see how i had dropped off initially then leveled back off to a low normal range

i score better now then when i wrote that blog
i notice the difference also

now i do have issues that is normal for my age
it use to bother me 
but 
now
i just let it pass knowing its normal to not remember something like a word

i attribute this to the aricept or donepezil and healthy living and maybe the aduhelm infusions

you should maximize your health also 
it may
prevent or slow down memory loss
prevent a heart attack or stroke
prevent cancer
make you feel better
control you diabetes
control your blood pressure
control your weight

its always interesting when i reread my old blogs
its like reading my diary sometimes
_________
10-24-2014

ARE THINGS BETTER

almost 4 years ago i took a neuropsychological examination
at the alzheimers center at ut southwestern in dallas

there was a portion of the test where i had to identify pictures
for some reason there were several pictures that i knew what
they were but i couldnt remember their names
sphinx hammock pretzel pelican eg
this is one of the items that gave me a low score on the initial
exam
now since ive taken this test 8 times in the last 4 years
i have learned the test
so that i get all those pictures correctly
in fact on the last test a few weeks ago i was 100% correct

was it because i learned the test or i am improving

my guess i learned the test i know thats the major part of the
reason
but i do think my memory is stable

there are lots of other parts of the test that you cant learn
as the answers are randomly changed each time
so
i still have short term memory problems but they dont seem
to have gotten worse

i was recently able to review my scores over the last few years
you can see the numbers improve from test to test then
they leveled off
still off slightly like a level where the bubble is
not quite in the lines

this week i got my official letter from the study
saying that my short term memory tests had improved
but i realize part of that was from learning the test
__________
so to answer the title of the blog
i would say
yes
i am better
why
i dont know for sure
but
ill take it

the organicgreen doctor

organicgreendoctor: flooding here and there

organicgreendoctor: flooding here and there: FLOODING HERE AND THERE   when we lived at the country n near austin when it rained it tended to rain in bunches we lived about a quarter of...

flooding here and there

FLOODING HERE AND THERE
 
when we lived at the country n near austin when it rained it tended to rain in bunches
we lived about a quarter of a mile from a river 
we simply walked a path along the fence line in our neighbors pasture down to the river

when it was during the dry season like the summer the water flow slowed a lot
where we wanted to we could on low water days walk across the river

once during the severe drought the river slowed to a trickle but it never completely dried up
during that time i walked the river bed from our entry point to a bridge that was about 3 hours walking distance on a mostly dry bed
there were deep pools of water along the way some had large fish swimming around in them

it was a beautiful solitary walk i wish i could duplicate
no sounds just birds and squirrels

that was the last time in the 17 years we lived there that i was able to walk the river bed
the bluffs were beautiful

when we would get a gully washer rain that river would become a raging river that would go over some of the high banks 


the highway in front of our house was about a half a mile to a low water crossing near an old country church
if the water got high enough it would flood the roadway
you can see it in that picture above flooded
there is in the upper left of that picture a water mark post that i think went to 4 feet
i saw it at 4 feet more than once
it usually flooded the church when that happened

folks have got washed off the road there before
once a caseworker with several kids got washed off the road and floated down the stream about hundreds of feet away 
they managed to get on the roof top before they were rescued

once when i was going to work early before the sun came up
i didnt know we had a heavy rain that early morning
i was driving a small light car
as i hit the water which i never saw rushing across the roadway i could feel the car floating
then
luckily 
i felt the momentum of my car push it far enough that the tires got traction and pulled me from the water
i might have been on the evening news if i had not got through

when we got heavy rain we would get flooded in so we couldnt leave until the water rescinded 

in the central texas area we are used to driving in rain and gulley washers
you dont drive fast
you dont drive too close to others
you dont go through flooded streets or highways
its best to stay home

ive noticed here when it floods folks arent as safe

santa barbara is sandwiched between the mountains and the ocean
our beaches face south
our mountains are mostly north
the water runs down hill

if you are on a bicycle in northern santa barbara you can almost coast from the foothills to the beaches without ever pedaling
so does the rain flow that way

it also rains more in the foothills and mountains than it does where we live in the middle of the city

there are creeks and rivers that flow from the mountains to the ocean
they are shaped like a y
as the water goes down hill it gets higher and faster

we have a creek about a block away that was a raging river even before the rain got worse
luckily it never came over its banks where we lived
but
it did as it got closer to the ocean
some of the pictures on the national news of the santa barbara flood is from our creek flooding down there

then in montecito where oprah and ellen and william live they always seem to get hit the hardest
the 101 freeway that runs through this area was shut down for a few days in the montecito area

luckily all this rain has filled up the reservoir lakes here
one the biggest is almost to the point where they will have to release water into the river below the dam
look out encampments on the river bed down stream

i feel comfortable driving around here during the rains
it makes me feel at home
locals dont always feel comfortable here during the rain

it makes me think of central texas when it snows
folks sort of go crazy driving 
folks who have lived in the northern climates they say oh this is nothing

luckily no one died here from the flooding that i know of
im surprised
i must say the local fire departments and police departments and road departments do a good job of preparing for the flooding before it happens

i dont like the flooding here vs the country n
there i knew what to do
here it just feels unsafe i guess cause that mountain sits up there above us and it could send lots of rain rock and debris on us 

of course 90%+ of the time the weather here is just perfect

im glad i lived in texas so i know how to survive in flooding

the organicgreen doctor