its not me

ITS NOT ME



glucose metabolism scan


amyloid pet scan

these pictures and scans above

show a normal brain on the left
and
an alzheimers brain on the right

the second one is a glucose metabolism pet scan
glucose is used by the brain cells as its energy source
it shows as the red stuff in this scan

a normal brain uses it everywhere
a diseased brain with alzheimers uses little glucose as
the damaged cells just dont work and cant take up
the glucose

the third picture is a amyvid pet scan
it shows areas where amyloid has accumulated
thats the red stuff
amyloid levels increase as alzheimers progresses

a normal brain has very little amyloid
an alzheimers brain has a lot of amyloid

this weekend i went to a caregivers form
one of the speakers gave an excellent presentation on
the symptoms of alzheimers disease
you know what you see when you deal with someone
who has this awful disease

at the end she showed a picture like the first one
it was sobering to me
to see the normal brain
then see the rat holed diseased alzheimers brain

you realize when you see that swiss cheese brain
why your love one cant remember your name
why they ask the same questions over and over
why you cant reason with them sometimes
why they cant bath feed and care for themselves
why they get angry get aggressive
why they may cry
why they seem to lack empathy they dont understand anymore
     what they say and do can affect someone
why they cant watch movies or finish activities
why they wont or cant eat
why they dont know who you are
why they crap in their pants or pee on things
why they cant remember to change clothes
why they wonder off
why they hoard things
why they take off their clothes or do other inappropriate behaviors

look at those pictures
the brain and its interconnections are just gone

its like the phone service communications electricity during storms
like hurricanes tornadoes floods
all the things that make those things work are just gone

so it is with alzheimers disease
its all gone
but unlike those storm things
the brain cant be fixed
and
it will only get worse

so when you deal with someone with alzheimers disease
or
please oh please
if i end up with this disease
and
you see me like this doing all those things
remember oh please remember

its not me

the organicgreen doctor