So many people have asked me over the years what were some of the signs and symptoms that Mitzi had before diagnosis. I wasn’t around in those days, so I only know what I’ve been told, but I’ve heard from family members that there were many oddities traceable back to when she was 49. I almost wonder if she had noticed things on her own earlier than that and just wrote them off or kept them to herself.
I meet people all the time who tell me about little things they’ve noticed about themselves or their loved ones. I can always tell that they are watching me closely to see if I react in an alarmed way at their observations.
Watching Mitzi get ice one day, by opening both the fridge and freezer doors like that was simply the way you get ice, it hit me just how many strange things happen long before a diagnosis that could give clues and shed light on a problem earlier rather than later. Too often, when we see things that make us think something is amiss, we are too uncomfortable to have hard conversations with the person or with other family members that could prove to be very valuable. An early diagnosis is one of the only things we can do to try and combat this disease.
It’s so important to have a tribe of people surrounding us who are willing to have those hard conversations…????
