Wizard of Alz blog

We went to the see the neurologist for the 6 month follow up to the “wait and see” plan of treatment yesterday.  It was a typical outing: 2 hours to get out of bed and get dressed and downstairs.(no shower, that only happens 2 x a week) Another 1/2 hour to take medications and get out the door. Thankfully it was a 2:30 appt!! (She will sleep till 3:00 pm if I don’t get her up or if she’s not going to see the massage therapist.)

The Dr. began with the usual questions about how my LO handles everyday life; Cooking , cleaning, yard work etc… The only truthful answer was that she does not do ANY meal prep. That’s because she never did!! She imagines that she cleans the house, because it’s not clean! And when she rants about “all that she does, for me,”like clean the house, it’s really difficult not to offer a rebuttal. I am learning how to “suck it up”!!

Then comes the neurological testing, (MMSE-Mini Mental Status Exam). I get to leave the room and wait in the lobby. Then the Dr. comes and gets me and we “talk”.

She said that her score had gone down. That a year ago it was 24/30 and now it’s 18/30. The significance of that was NOT lost on me. But the bombshell is that, she said with a score  under 20 the chances of her getting lost or in an car accident are significant. Sooooooo we discussed whether she should tell her she is reporting her to the DMV or just do it and let the letter come. Being a little “gun shy” to her tirades, I quickly said let the letter come in the mail, and I’ll play dumb. Can’t wait!!!

Then we entered the room and she started the discussion about her family history of dementia (her mom) and the results of the testing today;  And would she consider a clinical trial where they are investigating the correlation. Immediately I could feel my LO “tensing up”. She almost as immediately said, it was the “pain” that was the culprit, NOT dementia or Alzheimer’s. Like a crescendo, she continued with how she was NOT happy being put into a box! AND, she has told her before, “don’t you listen?!!” “How well do you think you would do with this kind of pain?”! Then she dragged me into it! “AND Rhonda has tried to do that before; Put her in the dementia box! And She was wrong!!”(and I’m still paying for it!) “I’m not going to put up with it!!  The she repeated the tirade about 2 more times, nearly verbatim but with increased volume, tears and bulging veins. The poor neurologist didn’t know what hit her! She did what I do; apologize profusely, take all the blame and promising to never do it again!

30 minutes later… we  left with another 6 month follow up to “wait and see”. And of course, with the excitement of an impeding DMV letter, stating she needs to be tested to continue to drive!! Can’t hardly wait!!