Someone in an online caregiver support group admitted that after years of taking care of their loved one who had Alzheimer’s, that they were starting to notice significant gaps in their own memory. And it scared them.
I was with Mitzi on multiple occasions when women would come up to her and confess that they had noticed issues that were worrisome and out of character for themselves and that they didn’t know what they should do. On each of the 3 occasions I witnessed one of these exchanges, Mitzi wrapped the person up in one of her signature hugs and then would tell them that, for her, the fear of the unknown of what the problem might be was so much worse than once she finally had a diagnosis and knew what she was dealing with.
It’s a personal decision to decide if you want to know or not, especially if there is a family history. There is in my family, and I’ve asked myself the same question often: would I want to know?
Knowing what I do know about dementia and having experienced it through so many situations, my personal answer is yes, I would want to know and would want to know as early as I could. We all know time is precious but when you have a diagnosis that puts a rough time stamp on the amount of it you’ve been allotted, it becomes even more so.
Today, we set our clocks forward an hour and I’ve probably heard the word “clock” used 15 times more often than I normally do. Each time, this photo has popped into my head. One of the mini tests doctors have been using for decades to help detect cognitive impairment is to have a patient draw a clock and ask them to label it with a certain time. The cognitive efficiency this test requires makes it one of the simplest tests for early screening. Mitzi was already diagnosed and still pretty independent in 2017 when I asked her to sit down and draw one for me. It took her about 20 minutes, and she never seemed to get frustrated. Just kept at it. It was truly fascinating to watch how her brain was working, as it decided what it needed to do next to complete the task.
And it was hard to watch, too.
I really don’t know if she was ever aware of how off her clock was. She didn’t seem to be at all, and I was so grateful for that.
Mitzi was passionate about helping people know how important she felt it was to talk to their doctor if they felt like something wasn’t right in their brains. Especially when it was worrisome. Because it could be something easily remedied like a vitamin deficiency, a hormone imbalance, untreated depression, or even the result of sleep irregularities.
Or it might not be.
As we sprung our clocks forward today and I read that post in the caregiving group, I knew what advice Mitzi would have given that person: Take the time to find out what is going on…because time is so very precious…
