Testing
- Thread starter Poppy49
- Start date
Poppy, my 86 year old Mum was referred by her GP to the Memory team about 4 weeks ago and we had the first visit and assessment this week. Another assessment visit will take place in approx. 6 week's time and expecting diagnosis after that (unless Mum needs a brain scan, which the lady said was not likely in Mum's case.).
Best wishes.
PS/ Edited: After reading the newest post below, maybe it will take longer than I am expecting....
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It's usually relatively easy for a medic to determine that someone probably has dementia. But it's sometimes not so easy to get a firm diagnosis of the actual disease the person has. It's said that the only way of getting a really accurate diagnosis is by examining the brain post mortem.
It took a long-established memory clinic 12 years to reach a diagnosis in my wife's case. And a visiting consultant said she had...........Alzheimer's. Other specialists since have had other ideas. And a while after the diagnosis we were told she also had Parkinson's. I can't help wondering, at times, how important this 'name game' is. What matters, to the PWD and their loved ones, is whether there are meds that will lessen the symptoms.
And then there's this to consider:
Perhaps the single most important conclusion from the 'nun study' is that Alzheimer disease is not straightforward. In several cases, pathology studies of brain tissue from the deceased nuns did not correlate with their performance on cognitive function tests. Sometimes the pathologist would score a brain as having signs of extremely advanced AD, only to learn later that the nun herself scored extremely well on all cognitive tests. Other times a brain would show only slight damage associated with AD, and the nun was characterized as exhibiting the signs of advanced cognitive decline and dementia.
(Alzheimer Disease and the “Nun Study”
May 4, 2009 by Michele Arduengo)
It took a long-established memory clinic 12 years to reach a diagnosis in my wife's case. And a visiting consultant said she had...........Alzheimer's. Other specialists since have had other ideas. And a while after the diagnosis we were told she also had Parkinson's. I can't help wondering, at times, how important this 'name game' is. What matters, to the PWD and their loved ones, is whether there are meds that will lessen the symptoms.
And then there's this to consider:
Perhaps the single most important conclusion from the 'nun study' is that Alzheimer disease is not straightforward. In several cases, pathology studies of brain tissue from the deceased nuns did not correlate with their performance on cognitive function tests. Sometimes the pathologist would score a brain as having signs of extremely advanced AD, only to learn later that the nun herself scored extremely well on all cognitive tests. Other times a brain would show only slight damage associated with AD, and the nun was characterized as exhibiting the signs of advanced cognitive decline and dementia.
(Alzheimer Disease and the “Nun Study”
May 4, 2009 by Michele Arduengo)
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Just to say that Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers and Vascular Dementia on 28th April so it took about two months. Just two assessment visits from the Memory Team, the last one was virtually an exam!!
They have since visited again and their plan is putting Mum onto Memantine tablets and sending a support worker to visit her twice a week for a chat and to do continual assessment of her condition. We really hope it will help her.
They have since visited again and their plan is putting Mum onto Memantine tablets and sending a support worker to visit her twice a week for a chat and to do continual assessment of her condition. We really hope it will help her.
