Frustration with short term memory loss

[midge2]

Hi,
I am 67 and my condition could be described as "fit" and "active", but my problem is ....two years ago I was diagnosed as having short term memory loss. Having pressed for some sort of explanation as to why....I was finaly told that I had Alzheimers. I was refered to the local unit ( who specialised in this field and prescribed the appropriate drug. My wife and I agreed that having taken the drug for three months it was doing me more harm than good ...certainly it reduced my normal level of health considerably. We decided I should come of the drug, I experienced health improvement but my memory loss remained. Two years after the onset of this complaint (including upgrading activities that would stimulate my mental capacity and my memory function I am much releaved to reveal that I have sufffered very little deteriation in my condition. I recently underwent an extencive re-assessments which confirmed the original diagnosis. I sense within myself areas where I have to focus in order to keep the beast at bay and with the good help and wise planning of my wife....have succeed to the delight of the professional who have me under their wing. Any comments in reply would be most welcome
Midge2

 

[connie]

Well done Midge,

Not qualified to say which approach to AD is right or wrong, but obviously you are doing the right thing for you. Please keep us informed with your progress.

Ithink for some people the drugs offered are a lifeline, and if they agree with their general health, tend to stay on them. My Lionel, now 63 has been on Exelon for the past three years, but I have no idea how he would have been without.
Horses for courses

Good luck for the future, Connie

 

[mailife49]

put on drugs for ad

Hi there Midge,

I am just your ordinary "have no idea" person (joking!) but I don't understand how doctors can just say "you have ad" firstly, there are all kinds of dementia , as you can well see in this wonderful website - my mothers is vascular dementia, but she has been as happy , lively and so on until my father's death - he was also a marvellous person who adored her............. well they never screened my mummy , but it was obvious when she began forgetting where she'd put things (constantly) and from being a very inspiring (to others) artistic, and verbally witty and poetically inclined (loved ode to a nightingale by John Keats as do I!!) , she just got a bit confused (but she's going to be 91 soon!!!) and she managed to go to my daughter's tennis match (with a bit of insistance from me!!) when sb. in my family told me afterwards, "your mother has ad" well i was flabbergasted, devastated........i was told in an open-air environment , in public, and well.................turned out she had vascular dementia; but my first reaction was anger at being told this and "how do they know, she hasn't had a brain scan".......

all that is water under the bridge now, but the aching goes on and on......

I do NOT believe it's right to give sb. medication for such a serious illness , in what to me , at least, seems a rather glib manner...oh , you've forgotten your keys, "mmmmmm. you've got alzheimer's " what total rubbish........

If you knew what I forget, and I teach english abroad, well they might say, put her on .X tablets, she has ad....... no!! she may well have attention deficit problem which I fear I have had for Years......

anyway I really wish you well, but don't give inl!! if you've had diabetes or high-blood pressure , you could well be a candidate (as my mother) for a stroke, or rather mini-strokes, and yet my mother was coming over here to spain to see me, till she was 84!!! and she was a party girl and still was when the disease set in.......... she's now in a nursing home and i'm hoping to go & see her, used to go over at xmas and in summertime........now it's all different .


anyhow i wish you well , and hope it's not the onset of ad, if feel in my gut that it isn't.........but who am i to say,

enjoy each day as it comes,
the good thing about alz. disease is that you never remember the bad things!!
mailife49

 

[Matzu]

Hi,
I am 67 and my condition could be described as "fit" and "active", but my problem is ....two years ago I was diagnosed as having short term memory loss.

Any comments in reply would be most welcome
Midge2

I would like to recommend a book to you which has very current information related to AD, in fact that's the title -- "Alzheimer's Disease" by Dr. Paul Dash. It is an American Academy of Neurology Quality of Life Guide.