I didn't really pick up on it to tell you the truth.
I just thought it was just stressed. I was stressed about work. I wasn't getting enough
sleep, what have you. You know, and I get mixed up at times...
I guess I was partly in denial. I kept thinking it was something else.
I think I was in the kitchen, and I was looking for something or I asked for something, and
my daughter she goes, "Mom, what is it? Do you have Alzheimer's?"
It wasn't anything like drastic or big, but it was more like if I told her I was going
to go do something and she'd ask me five minutes later if I was going to go do something --but
as time kind of went on and I noticed she was having problems doing work and Dave had
to help her with that kind of stuff, that kind of concerned me a little more.
I noticed it went from maybe just computer questions to actually questions about what
the content might be or things like that.
Dave was worried about me, and he contacted his primary doctor, and his doctor said, "I
want to refer you to a different person," And I went to him for a while, and then at
some point, he said, "I'm going to send you to Stanford," which, I cannot tell you how
grateful I am.
In Susan's case, she came to my clinic complaining about new progressive problems with her memory,
and, my job is to try to figure out first and foremost, is there anything the matter
that we can fix right now? Some simple tests include tests for thyroid hormone function,
vitamin B12, In Susan's case, all of those tests were normal, and so we had to move on
to an objective neuropsychological assessment.
My job with Susan was to provide a complete profile of her cognitive performances, which
usually involves IQ or intellectual functioning, language skills, visual-spatial abilities,
attention, memory, executive functioning, motor skills and also mood.
We were not expecting the final diagnosis that we had. Dr. Kerchner was very thorough
about outlining how he came to his conclusion that she had Alzheimer's.
He just got close to me kind of, and said, "you have all the markers for Alzheimer's.
I was just like "Oh my God."
A diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in life is never more than a -- a strong hypothesis,
but the value of making a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease - it helps a patient to understand
a little bit more about their prognosis, what's likely to happen in the coming years. We have
a lot of advice for people about estate planning and health planning for the future.
We did a lot of crying and a lot of mourning and a lot of being upset. And we've moved
through that now, and we're just looking for the positive sides and how can Susan help
with other people going through this disease, and how can we just enjoy ourselves in our
day. So it's a progression.
I think my mom and I get along better now. I don't give her as much of a hard time as
usual. We try and do stuff as a family together, I try and make time for that...and she's a
great mom still. A little spacey but, we all have our days.
With the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders, you have a team so you're getting lots of
opinions. They're going to be on the cutting edge more in terms of what treatments are
available and there would be a chance to be enrolled in some type of study that may end
up helping you or also someone else down the line.
I think going to Stanford...having somebody who's really involved with the future of curing
this disease is beneficial for us, and I think it's done a lot to make it not so final and
grim, because there's like this future. At least we are working on something.
I don't cry about it anymore. I read, I paint...I'm just kind of taking it one day at a time.