With a 90% certainty. One can only achieve 100% certainty by drilling a holl in the skull and taking fluid samples. Something which surgeons aren't allowed to do here in Europe. Not for the purpose of determining Alzheimer's disease anyway. I believe it is done in the US though.
As is often the case with "young" Alzheimer patients, the disease is progressing much more rapidly than with the truly geriatric. Since my mom's verbal excellence and career as a medical secretary, the diagnosis has been made between 12 and 18 months later than it would have with someone without those 'benefits'. So mom is probably closer to the onset of phase two of Alzheimer's than the beginning of the disease.
This might go a long ways towards explaining why I'm often in such a nostalgic mood of late.
We're talking memories, the past and also the future a lot. The latter topic being the most painful by far. The oldest memories survive the longest and when your dad used to be a photographer by profession you tend to have a lot of photo's, albums full of them in fact.
As those haven't all withstood the time equally well, we're now scanning them in for future use.
Aides for mom to remember us by. I picked out this one and put it on my USB stick to take home with me as it brought a smile to my face:
Three guesses as to who that is.
The text is Dutch, but I'm not sure it needs translating.
Lol cruelty to animals begins at an early age huh ?
ReplyDeleteGreat that you have loads of photographs to spark those memories :)
Awwwwwww, that is so cute! It is so nice, and often so embarassing at the same time, to see pictures from your youth. I have a very precious photo album my father made maybe 10 years ago with pictures from my birth till I turned 18.
ReplyDeleteGoing through all this now with your mom must be both pleasant and painful. I hope that for both of you if was mostly pleasant.