My dad was diagnosed with VD at 59. The first 4 years (in comparison to now) were relatively symptom free, mainly short term memory problems, speech impairments etc. He was told to stop driving quite early on and couldn't work. In the last 12 months he has detoriated rapidly. His consultant was always a pyschiatrist ( I was told that in our area the pychiatrist specialised in dementia) so he never saw a neurologist...until last month. The pychiatrist had always diagnosed VD from the results of the CT scan showing multi infarcts, restricted blood supply. But when we saw the neurologist last month he said that the detoriation now implies he has Alzeihemers. He said it doesn't really matter now what the diagnosis is. But when I thought about it I thought, hang on, it would have mattered 5 years ago as he could have been given Aricept for Alzeihmers and given him a better quality of life for those first few years. Should I be fuming?
I know I shouldn't dwell on the past but has my father been cheated out of quality of life because of a mis-diagnosis? Why does the distinction between the 2 diseases seem so hard to determine? From what I know, Alzeihmers can only really be diagnosed from a brain biopsy or post mortem. But shouldn't they try aricept if they're not sure?!
Aaaghh!
I know I shouldn't dwell on the past but has my father been cheated out of quality of life because of a mis-diagnosis? Why does the distinction between the 2 diseases seem so hard to determine? From what I know, Alzeihmers can only really be diagnosed from a brain biopsy or post mortem. But shouldn't they try aricept if they're not sure?!
Aaaghh!