i had forgotten my wife she and i did this video that day
basically we were interviewed and filmed first as a couple then later i was interviewed as a patient by myself
this video was to be used as an educational video for medical students and doctors on how to do a neurological memory test
at the end of the blog done almost 9 years ago i wrote this
catching this disease early is important to begin treatment and to help patients manage their lives
little did i know how important this early diagnosis was
so many times folks dont get diagnosed until things have advanced too far
i was diagnosed real early so i began aricept (donepezil) earlier than most patients do and feel like i may have gotten some benefit from this by slowing down my symptoms
i also was incentivized to become aggressive with my health to do all those healthy things we need to be doing
we my wife she and i have been able to plan out our lives while we are in control over the last 9 years
i always wondered where i would be today memory wise if had not got diagnosed when i did
months later my wife she and i also did a 5 minute video about my story which is linked on the above heading to this blog if you are on a computer
you can also click below to watch it
the educational video we did is not available to post
XXXX
09-22-2011
VIDEO
my wife she and i celebrated end alz on alzheimers action day
by doing a video filmed at university of texas southwestern
we wore our purple for the video
for the video we were interviewed as patient and spouse then
i was videotaped having a provider do a mental status exam
on me asking me questions from a standard exam
the goal of this is to show it to medical students, residents, and
doctors to show them how to do a mental status exam on a
patient
surprisingly many physicians dont know how to do this test well
including this writer when he was in practice
patients at different levels of the disease process were used
from mild like me to more advanced alzheimers disease
i had only minimal difficulties doing the test
but some of the short term memory problems showed up
if i was in a doctors office being screened using the old tests
no abnormalities would show up but
this newer test called the moca test (like the coffee) picks up
some of the difficulties that i have
hopefully this video will help these new doctors to be, new doctors,
and doctors to learn how to administer these tests
catching this disease early is important to begin treatment
and to help patients manage their lives
XXXX
a common exam done in the office is a clock test where you are given three words to remember then you are asked to draw a clock and put a certain time on it
if you are far enough along in the disease this test will be abnormal
if you are early in the disease it will be normal
eg
my clock test was normal when i was first diagnosed with mci (mild cognitive impairment)
the moca test however was not normal but showed i probably had mci
another in office test done is a mmse
mine was normal and has always been normal
so if you have memory testing because you are worried you have memory issues
the clock test and the mmse may not pick up your memory loss
but
the moca test will
its my opinion based on my real life experience
that
the earlier you know the better
the organicgreen doctor
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