Thursday, November 24, 2011

Test results - is it worth the bother?

The verdict is nothing really bad - no tumours, no evidence of strokes, no vitamin B12 deficiency.  Vague mutterings from Mr doctor: ....like many older people......some shrinkage in the brain.......mostly in frontal temporal area of brain.......next step is to see a geriatrician.....blood test only shows iron deficiency.  So I ask outright, is it too early for a diagnosis then?  any evidence of TIA's? (no) so is it alzheimers?......splitting hairs- alzheimers or vascular dementia (practically swallowing the last word). Mum doesn't pick up on it.  She picks up on, and elaborates for us "well its to be expected then, through getting older".  Big smile from Mr doctor as he attempts to usher us out the door for bits of paper needed to make appt. with geri.  He's so nervous - worse than me!  However Mum has a question to ask about a money order she nearly completed following a phone call from a scammer who almost diddled her out of $200 - so he has to attend to that first!  (What more evidence do you need, I think!)  Then he comes back to the room to get us because we're stuck there with me trying to instill in Mum the "importance of not doing what strangers on the telephone ask".  Seems her early training of politeness and obedience is superseding any other thinking processes in these instances - even though she admits "he had a funny accent".  My head spins a bit trying to work out what is more important - more doctor gibberish or attending to the latest puzzle of how to protect Mum (the latest puzzle now added to the list of the other 100 puzzles to do with minding mum, sitting on the waiting list in my mind).

I'm relieved there's no nasties, but also a bit disappointed somehow.  What did I expect - that he would DO something to HELP?  Of course, problems remain - me to solve them still.  What exactly will a geriatrician's diagnosis give us?  Chance of some medication that might relieve some symptoms.  Such a palaver it will be to take her to the huge hospital, wait around, sit through something (lots of interview and memory tests I suppose).  Problems will remain unsolved. And maybe its more important to get some movement (somehow) on all the practical issues outstanding - like...but its too overwhelming to even LIST them.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Paula,

    Thank you for commenting on my blog.

    I'm so sorry that you have this awful worry/concern for your mom. I'm curious if her doctor gave her the 30 question test. I think David scored a 15, and our doctor was shocked, and then said he was fairly sure he had Alz.
    If your mom is diagnosed with this, I would hope they'd get her on Aricept. It doesn't cure, but it did slow the progression of the disease for David, and we had more quality time together.
    Keeping you in my thoughts,
    Dolores

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