Nels had his MRI done and then we took him to see a neurologist. I really expected that she (the doctor) would tell me that he is fine. However, she didn't. I had been forewarned that neurologists are not the warmest people and sometimes rude. This was from my friend, Joanne, who has gone to a few. So, I was pleasantly surprised that she was so warm.
She was awesome! I told her my expectations upfront. I wanted to know what is going on with Nels' brain and what to expect. She spent an hour and a half with us. Patiently, she told us (Nels was right there) that Nels has severe brain atrophy--the worse she has ever seen and she has seen many brain MRIs, CTs and PET scans. Nels has a brain of a 99 year old with dementia. She drew me a map of his brain and showed me that he only operates with 25% of a normal brain. Part of his brain was dead due to stroke and the rest was atrophied and useless. I was shocked!
She put Nels through several memory, balance and coordination tests. Nels didn't do too bad on most of them. She held out both arms and wiggled both hands. She asked him which hand was she wiggled her fingers. His reply was the right. She asked, "Only the right?" He confirmed that. She was wiggling both hands. His stroke on the right side prevented him from seeing the left hand wiggling.
She had a few more questions and the answers to those questions resulted in taking a few more tests. This time they were drawings and sequences. Nels had to draw a 3D box and do a clock face with a set time, and two patterns together. He failed on all three. She explained that this showed that he has frontal lobe dementia. The frontal lobe is responsible for the executive functions. It controls organization, apathy, sequences, multi-tasking, and more.
This explained so much about Nels. I had told her about his non-stop TV watching, his roaming, just standing there robotic without any interaction, his inability to complete a job, and do two or three tasks. I felt so good that I had a better understanding!
Since then I have read so many books and online research on frontal lobe dementia. I have joined four (so far) FaceBook support groups. It has helped so much! Now, I understand this person who is Nels. The old Nels is gone and this one is the one we have to take care of and all his behaviors.
