Alzheimer's Disease with Li-Xia

This page gives information about Alzheimer's Disease with Li-Xia with which she was diagnosed on December 7, 2006.

Case history

Li-Xia has been suffering from chronic tiredness, dejection and forgetfulness. Some years ago, she already complained that her memory had declined. Early 2006, her short term memory became noticably worse. One day, I discovered that she had totally no recollection of something I told her the day before. I adviced her to have herself examined. On Thursday, June 1, 2006, someone came to perform some tests. Both Li-Xia and I were surprised by how bad she performed on some simple memory tests. Also on the Visual Association Test she did not score well. Later, I discovered on the Internet that especially people with Alzheimer's disease or suffering from a depression, do not score well on this test. It took some time before we received the results, and we were adviced to contact the Neurology department of Medisch Spectrum Twente, a general hospital, in Enschede. After the summer holidays we visited our GP.

On monday October 9, 2006, we went to see the neurologist for the first time. While we were sitting in the waiting room, I suddenly felt much older, because of all the old people that were sitting in the waiting room, several of them in a wheelchair. It felt a little unreal. The neurologist performed some simple test and a general examination. She decided some additional examinations: A psychological examination and a MRI of her head.

On Thursday, October 19, Li-Xia underwent the psychological examination during the morning. In the week that followed the Neurologist contacted me, because she also wanted to perform a lumbar puncture and have her cerebrospinal fluid examined. The puncture was performed on Tuesday, November 7. I went with Li-Xia. The examination went okay, and Li-Xia did not have any trouble afterwards.

On Friday, November 10, Li-Xia went for a MRI scan. Afterward she felt remarkable clear, but the effect did not last long.

On Thursday, December 7, we went to see the neurologist again. She told us that all examinations point into the direction of Alzheimer's Disease. She suggested that Li-Xia would start with Reminyl.

Current state

At this moment there are still many things that Li-Xia can do without help. Almost daily she goes shopping on her bike. Also with looking after the house, she doet not have much problems. It is especially some small things that she has problems with. She needs to keep a diary for her appointments. Often when she wakes up, she has to think hard to know which day of the week it is. Sometimes she forget things that happened some days before.

Once a week, on Thursdays, Li-Xia attends a group of young people with dementia at Bruggerbosch. There they also have some sports activities and some memory training. Someone from there also helps us with the problems we are encountering in our family life.

Alzheimer's Disease with Li-Xia

Case history

Current state

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