Suspicion....
My Mother has shown signs of Alzheimer's for ten years or better. So I recognized the signs in me that I saw in her.
For a long time I blamed the stress of my husband's health. After he had prostate cancer two years ago, I blamed the accelerated symptoms on stress.
Lately I have had to admit that there might be a problem. I would ask my husband the same questions over and over. So often he would reply that we had discussed this already. And I would ask him to please tell me what the decisions were.
It was so frustrating to know that I had asked a question but did not remember the answer.
Today I saw a neurologist. He was so nice and did not get irritated once. He asked me questions and we had a nice conversation. He gave me three words to remember. At the end of the nice conversation he asked me what the three words were. Tears welled up in my eyes because I knew that there were three words that I was supposed to remember.... but I had no idea what they were. Before I left I asked him what the three words were. Ball.... I can only remember ball.
During the consult he turned most of the lights out and asked me to focus on the cabinet door handle. He shown a light in my right eye and then the left. He asked me if I was still looking at the cabinet knob. I said yes. He said that my eye was jumping around quite a bit.
He is sending me for an MRI to make sure everything is ok and I don't have a brain bleed or tumor before he just assumes I have Alzheimer's.
And he is checking me for anemia and thyroid, so I had blood work done.
He gave me a prescription for Aricept.
One day at a time, one step at a time.....Suspicion!
