Thursday, October 9, 2014

Day 8 - Multi Whaaat?

When my husband began having problems remembering things, my worst nightmare was that he had Alzheimer’s disease.  My grandmother had AD years ago before it was that well-known, and we saw what it did to her – not only did she have AD and did not remember any of us, she was also blind and could not even see those who would come to visit her in the nursing home.  It was really very sad for us to watch her decline.

My husband was seeing a doctor regularly for high blood pressure, which was being treated with medication and under good control.  But then the forgetfulness started, and caused more concern.  As time went on and it seemed to be getting worse, we consulted the doctor and went for testing at Mayo Clinic.

Once all of the tests were completed and the doctor gave us the diagnosis, I had trouble even pronouncing it much less understanding what it meant!!  Multi-farct dementia 1 – what in the world is that?!

Of course, the doctors explained it to us – damage to the brain due to small strokes, which impair the memory process.  The doctor used such technical terms as infarct that it took more reading and research to really understand.  I was happy to hear that it wasn’t Alzheimer’s disease; but didn’t really understand what this Multi-farct dementia 1 really was and what it meant for us.

Tomorrow I will share more about this particular form of dementia; and in later posts, will look at a few other forms that you may have heard of before.

Thank you for checking out my blog; I hope you have learned something from what I have shared, or at least discovered that YOU ARE NOT ALONE in your journey – as I am discovering through this daily blog!

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1 Note:  The above diagnosis of Multi-farct dementia was received in the early 1990’s; the terminology used now for this type of dementia is Vascular dementia.

4 comments:

  1. Barbara ... the knowing you are NOT ALONE is just a beautiful thing indeed. How beautiful your commitment to your blogging, new friend.

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    1. Thank you for your comment! I do TRY to follow through with commitments; and this DAILY blog is really challenging me; but so far - so good!!

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  2. We were wondering if my mom's Alzheimer's was in fact vascular dementia caused by strokes as blood clotting factors and strokes are in her family, but a fall she had recently, that resulted in an MRI showed that she did not have any signs of mini strokes or vascular dementia. In a way the fall was a blessing in disguise because it confirmed for us that her dementia was in fact more than likely the Alzheimer's. We had wanted to be sure, but for some reason her doctor's had not seen the need to do an MRI previously. I think it helped us to accept it better rather than playing the what if game. Either way it is still hard to see her decline.

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    1. I totally understand what you were dealing with in determining if it was Vascular or Alzheimer's. In my research, I know that the Vascular CAN give way to Alzheimer's and fear as my husband declines, it could be that for us as well. At this stage, he is pretty independent, although he needs me for figuring out things, setting out his medications, to HEAR others talking to him (his doctor!), and for the menial things I do around the house - like cooking, finances, etc. I can honestly say, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL - and am happy to follow YOUR journey as you follow ours!!

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