My First Memory Clinic Appointment

 

My first memory clinic appointment was this afternoon. It felt really strange that I needed someone to support me with this. I'm now in my early 60s and feel like I need a grown-up with me to hold my hand.

We met with a doctor who put me through a bunch of memory-related tasks and then sent us back to the waiting area so she could make an assessment of the information gathered and look at the scan that I had back in June this year.

I have been told that the results of the tests today are inconclusive. The scan result was that it showed minimal to moderate shrinkage compared to scans of healthy people in my age group.

I now won't be seen by the team for a year to check my progress and I have been referred to a neurology team for a bunch of further investigations to exclude other conditions.

I really feel like I have been left in limbo as I still have to manage my memory issues which impact my daily life and make it very difficult to live my best life.

It's really not good news for me as without a diagnosis, I have probably a 20-year wait on the housing list for supported housing. I doubt I will live that long as I also have heart failure and am in stage four of that

edited to add thoughts the next day

The way it was explained to me is that they can't come up with a definite diagnosis of Alzheimer's until the brain shrinkage is more obvious on a scan.

They don't take into account that the reason other people don't appear to have seen changes in me is that I don't see anyone who sees me regularly who would have reported their views back to me.

It's really frustrating as I have now had to give up working in online retail because of the issues I am having. I have lost most of the website-building skills I used to have and need all sorts of disability-related support online to help me write my book. Ironically, one of the manuscripts I am working on is an account of my continuing memory loss.