Tag Archives: Alzheimer’s anxiety concerning appointment

Future Ready? Not Quite Where Alzheimer’s Is Concerned.

Alzheimer's Spouse Issue, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

future.jpg

 

I have not posted much recently because I’ve been caught up in a flurry of moving preparations (although the move is months away), arranging repairs and renovation at the new house, starting the process of getting rid of stuff at the old. And in that flurry I have probably not been paying as much detailed attention to Ralph as usual. But we just spent half an hour together in my car after dropping his car to be serviced. In that time we had this exact same conversation close to ten times, approximately every two to three minutes:

What else do we have to do today?

Dr. Ling at 1.

What time will the car ready for us to pick up?

They’ll call us when it’s ready.

Should I leave the dogs locked up?

Yes, because we have a doctor appointment.

 

I’m used to the repetition of course. But it seems to have become more intense lately. I casually asked him whether he’d noticed any changes in his memory.

No. Have you?

Yes, I said then caught myself so added to soften the blow,

But then again my memory is worse too.

In fact, it is worse and I worry frequently about a factoid I read early on—that Alzheimer’s caregivers are statistically more prone to develop Alzheimer’s than the general population.  Every time I lose my keys, cell phone, or someone’s first name I do panic a little. And to my dismay, those occasions are increasing.

But Ralph loved my answer.

Well, that’s not going to be good, he laughed. We’re going to be rambling around the house saying “Who Are You?” to each other.

Yep. I forced my own laugh, thinking of the changes I am making in our new house to make it both wheelchair accessible and generally easier for caregiving down the road. Ralph is not ready to think about that possibility in a real way, but I have to. Just writing that makes me realize why my anxiety level has been high and why I have been avoiding posting here—the act of moving brings our future into stark, unavoidable relief.

Ralph’s Annual Mental Check Up

Alzheimer's Spouse Issue, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

doctor

Ralph had his yearly mental check up yesterday. A slow learner, after four years I have finally realized that there is no reason to bring up appointments ahead of time. So when he woke up at eight, I announced we had to be ready in two hours to head to Atlanta to see his doctor at Emory. Of course, Ralph was a little tense on the drive in, but less anxious than he would have been if he’d had more time to worry. And I didn’t have to have the following conversation in the car more than a few times.

Head or hands? he asked. (We have seen a dermatologist at Emory recently as well so asking this was a positive sign.)

Head.

What are they going to do?

Ask you some questions probably.

Will it take long?

I don’t think too long.

I am not looking forward to this.

I nodded but secretly I have come to look forward to our Emory visits with Nurse Practitioner Stephanie V. While Ralph gets his testing, Stephanie always meets with me alone for an update, a conversation that I find strangely comforting. She asks my impressions, and then lets me ramble a bit. Her advice tends to be straightforward and useful. She never fails to ask how I am doing. I always get not quite teary but close. I always leave feeling reassured that I am handling things better than I thought.

As for the appointment results… Amazingly, they showed exactly what I told Stephanie I’ve sensed: that his objective memory, for words for instance, seems to be holding steady; but that he seems to be having more difficulty  carrying on conversations or activities like following directions that require more complicated processing.

In the testing Ralph actually improved his memory for words, remembering more animal names and more words beginning with the letter F. (At least that’s my memory of the results—in fact as soon as I leave Emory my own memory of what has been said becomes a bit of a blur.)

What dropped was his ability to connect the dots when he had to include numbers and letters, i.e., go from number to letter to number. The test, which he completed without errors last year in 70 seconds, took him 120 seconds this year with several mistakes. In other words he is having more trouble with more complicated linkage.

I am not sure how to read this reversal in strength and weakness and don’t think it matters too much. Basically, the holding pattern we have been in still holds and will keep holding until it doesn’t.