Documenting my descent into madness.
Welcome back. It’s been about 15 months since I’ve last posted. What prompted me to restart this blog was a life-altering event that occurred yesterday. Before I get into what occurred, I want to emphasize – “DO NOT PANIC AND IMMEDIATELY CALL ME!” (I’m looking at you, Kate and Jen.) I am (mostly) the same as I was last week, last month, last year.
I intend to continue posting at least weekly, that will document what’s going on in Wyoming, and specifically how I’m doing.
Over the past several months I have noticed occasional gaps where I had momentarily trouble picking the word I intended, or the specifics about the place we were going, street names, etc., but they were transient and momentary. I attributed this to general aging and not being particularly significant.
I am currently dealing with two issues as a fallout of my physical in early November. First is the issues with circulation in my lower legs. I’ve had veinous mapping of my legs and a CAT scan of my abdomen to try to find the source of the issues. I have a consultation with Casper Medical Imaging Dec 23rd to discuss the results of the tests.
The second issue is my sleep apnea that I had intended to ignore, but various family members have persuaded me to at least explore some of the options.
I had a consultation with the Otolaryngology Clinic in November to discuss my options. The bottom line is, for Medicare to fund something like Inspire you first have to try a CPAP machine and document a failure to effectively use it. There is also a BMI restriction, that I am on the ragged edge of. I plan to get down from 240lbs to 220lbs over the next couple of months for other reasons so that shouldn’t be an issue.
So, the first step was to have the Doctor order a CPAP machine from Apria Direct. So yesterday, while I was driving home, I received a call from a very nice lady to discuss the CPAP that was ordered. Of course, I was using the hands-free telephone option in the truck, so there were no safety issues. She reassured me that they had made advances over the last 10 years (since I had last used one previously). She also explained that when I receive it, I can bring it into their local office for fitting, etc. They needed a physical address for UPS to deliver the machine. So, I started to rattle off my address – 7401 … and drew a complete blank for the street. Disconcerting. I knew empirically there had to be a street name, but I was drawing a complete blank. And it wasn’t a momentary thing, it was gone.
Fortunately, I explained to the nice lady that I was on a car-phone and in traffic and to wait just a moment. I pulled over and grabbed my iPhone and pulled up my address. As soon as I saw Geary Dome Road it all snapped back. I gave her the address and expect to receive it next week.
Drawing the blank on my address is what I consider the first definable mark of possible Alzheimer Disease. PUT THE PHONE DOWN, KATE!!! I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME. REMIND ME TO BRING IT UP ON THE FAMILY CALL THIS SUNDAY; YOU CAN CALL ME AFTER THAT.
The first question is, is this really Alzheimer’s. I will be asking my doctor this, as the website above mentioned pre-clinical stages with pathological biomarkers. Hopefully they can identify if this is indeed a disease or just forgetfulness. I have talked to Sis and she says that a number of the nuns at Mayo Clinic are in a longitudinal study and that various markers are available in blood work (and via spinal taps).
The next big question is: If this is indeed a marker for possible Alzheimer’s, what is the slope of the curve? If it’s shallow, it will be a race between it and general decrepitude over the next 20 years or so, and probably not be much of an issue. If it’s steeper, the I anticipate it will be a wilder ride and will require some lifestyle and other changes. Watch this space.
Amplifying info to follow.