DEMENTED MIND – NOT!

The results from my Neuropsychological exam are in. and I do not have dementia. After four hours together their impression, or conclusion was: “Mr. Woodby’s current test results contained evidence for intermittent difficulties with attention and executive function, but most measures tested in the Average range or better including intellectual functioning, simple attention, verbal learning, narrative recall, visual memory, and deductive reasoning. Motor skills were Average bilaterally. Emotionally, he did not endorse symptoms to a degree that would indicate the presence of clinical depression. Overall, the available medical record information, self-reports, and psychometric data would indicate MCI at worst.”

Mild Cognitive Impairment is possibly the beginning stages or even pre-stages of Dementia. Many people will have MCI and it will either be a temporary thing which will disappear, or it will not be dealt with and become full blown dementia. Mayo Clinic has a class which equips people to recognize and overcome Mild Cognitive Impairment. When Harriet was first diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia, I sent a copy of her Neuropsychological exam to Mayo, hoping that she would be eligible to sign up for the class. Sadly, she was already past the place where such a class would help her and was rejected.

This is why your BS alarm should go off when someone says, “It’s not a problem if you keep losing your car keys. The problem is when you look at the car keys and don’t know what they are used for.” While it is true that if you have been a person who always loses their car keys, or cannot remember someone’s name, or have always been directionally challenged, then when you get older, and it continues, it is not a problem. However, if you have been someone who never forgets where you put something, or never forget a name, or cannot remember a time in your life when you’ve gotten lost, and now these things happen all the time, you need to speak with a doctor.

This morning, Tuesday, April 19, I had an appointment with the eye doctor who performed surgery when I had a bleed in the inner eye. Harriet had an appointment with her Primary Care Doctor in the afternoon.

The Eye Doctor gave me some good news and some news that was a wakeup call. My surgery site looks great and while I have cataracts, they are not ready for surgery yet. The wake-up call was about my weight gain and the increased sugar in my blood.

I have been prediabetic for years, and around twelve years ago I lost weight. At that time, I weighed 200 pounds and my blood numbers were perfect. Since then, I have been gaining weight and my blood sugar numbers have been going up. Last year I weighed 215 pounds and my daily blood sugar was around 105. Today, I weighed in at 240 pound and my daily blood sugar averages at 125.

Did you ever see the movie, “What About BOB?” starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus. It’s a funny movie about a clingy, self-absorbed, narcissistic man named Bob (Bill Murray), who drives his therapist, (Richard Dreyfus) so insane that he tries to kill him. When the attempted murder doesn’t work Bob says, “Death therapy, You’re a genius!” I have seen person after person who when facing death can make HUGE changes because of their desire to live. Today I was given Blindness therapy. The Eye doctor looked at me and said, “Unless you lose weight you will become seriously diabetic, which will cause irreparable damage to your eyes.  With therapy and medication, we might be able to stop further damage, but we cannot improve what is damaged already.

Okay!! I will make whatever changes necessary to lose weight and save my eyes. There is nothing like a good dose of death therapy to turn someone’s life around. Pray for me!!!

My wife Harriet, went to her doctor because of sleep deprivation, recurring Urinary Tract Infections, anxiety, and medication issues.  Harriet shared that she stopped taking Trazadone because of nightmares, and without the medication she couldn’t fall asleep. His conclusion was that the nightmares were probably from the fact that the Aricept isn’t working as well because the disease is progressing despite the medication. Aricept does a good job of masking the progression by covering up the symptoms.

Of course, UTIs and Sleep Deprivation, can really cause a lot of negative issues with people who have dementia. We are hopeful that this is what is behind many of her problems and not a progression of the disease itself.

Harriet has been referred to a Urologist at St. Joseph’s in Chelsea and has an appointment to see her Neurologist in a couple of months. Please pray that the Lord will bless her with sleep.

I am writing a blog about my next step which I consider to be a midcourse correction.  It’s not time to give up, feel sorry for myself, or quit. It’s time to take a good hard look at what works for others and kick it in gear. (This is the place where you turn on the theme music from Rocky!) It’s time to show up, man up, grow up, and (any other UP you can put in here) and just do what needs to be done. Its past time for this fat, lard ass, old man, to kick his own butt. My next blog will tell you just what I am doing to make it happen.

Please continue to pray for us and be sure we are praying for you.