Dementia/Alzheimers, What Do You Think?

I was very pleased to hear I have no markers for dementia or Alzheimer's. And I didn't expect to hear what the doctor said that I do have. Well, it wasn't a total surprise. Just maybe how the Neuropsychologist said it to me!

On a bell curve, she referred to how my one low score was attention. Then she said, "If you aren't paying attention, you won't remember!" Then before that could fully sink in she jumped to my highest score. A high score means outside of the norm.

My highest score was multitasking. I was disappointed that was my highest score as I had recognized how much I had lost of that more recently. She then said, "To multitask, we keep what is important to keep, which isn't everything!"

Then I laughed! Aha, so that is it. I'm not paying attention and when I do I am only paying attention to what I believe is needed for multitasking!

Then I told her how much I have noticed slipping in my multitasking since cancer, chemotherapy, and my respiratory code. She smiled and said, "You were probably a genius at multitasking before that then!"

We both laughed then.

After I went through the testing and did some dementia research, I heard about training that the state was doing and checked into it. They were especially looking for people who may be able to provide services in the Native American and Black communities.

Dementia is a general term for declining memory. Alzheimer's is a specific disease with specific symptoms and treatment and it is the most common form of dementia.

Even though I don't have the markers, I have experienced dementia with my aunt, my husband's aunt, his father, and brother and there have been others.

My Aunt Edina and my mother were the best older people that I knew. They both talked of dying as Moving Home or Going Home! Edina would say, “I know I won’t be lonesome there as most of my good friends and loved ones are already there.”

She died when she was 103, but she started to have some dementia in her late nineties. She was short and stalky. She could outwalk my husband that was in great shape, only 30+ years younger than her.

My Aunt Edina was my husband’s aunt. She was his dad’s older sister. He was afraid to speak with her about arrangements for her death and I told him that I thought she probably already had that all figured out. And she did, only she had not written it anywhere or paid for any of it.

And since her nephew was writing checks for her, and paying her bills, he knew she could afford the costs.

One day we were visiting, and she wanted hubby to talk to the guy that stops up as she doesn’t want him around anymore. She said, “Say, I’m from the government and want you to stay away from this apartment and this woman.” He was supposed to say that in the direction of the radiators.

I could tell he did not want to say that. I encouraged him and he did it. She was visibly calmer and happier. I did tell him he has to notify the social worker/manager yet that day and her daughter.

Afterward, as we were leaving, he said, “You are just encouraging her”. I told him that in my culture we believe people. We don’t know what people see or hear when small children or older people especially as they are closer to the creator, so who knows?

Hubby's aunt Edina had dementia at the end of her life. Maybe about 98 we noticed the beginning of it. She lived to be 103.

Hubby would visit her every week for years. He had her checkbook and was paying her bills for a few years at the time and had to change her account a couple of times as she was scammed by callers. It was difficult to see dementia as she was always so sharp.

I suppose early signs of dementia were when she was accusing her daughter's husband and her sister-in-law of stealing from her. Really silly things, but she was upset about them. To my knowledge, she never got upset with her nephew and she always knew him, right up until the end.

I have many more stories of dementia and many more things to say about dementia, but my point for this story is not all of that.

Anyone can get dementia. Hopefully, there will be a cure at some point soon. I think it is important that we all have some idea of what it looks like and how to care for our loved ones in the best way possible.