Yellow Brick Road and an Anniversary of Sorts

Josie in Podunk

8 years ago tonight we began our dementia journey with a visit to the ER for uncontrolled blood pressure, migraine headaches, and bloody noses same was causing.  We had just been to our new doc the day before so the meds had not had time to kick in.  His recommendation upon my messaging him about the continuing migraine and what my hubby called feeling fuzzy headed was get him to the ER  ASAP.  Short story is he left the ER a changed man and has never completely recovered.  

Fast forward to conversations with the new doc and testing 2 years ago we received the “official diagnosis” of mild to moderate cognitive impairment of unknown origin.  Fancy words for dementia they were not sure how to categorize.

Theories between the doc and I are that the blood pressure, the Phenergan to which he had a psychotic reaction, and possible TIA too, late to test for 2 years ago, are the culprits.  The ER never addressed the complaints of feeling fuzzy headed saying it was the migraine and elevated BP that caused it.  It was not even mentioned in the hospitalist’s notes.  Too late to do anything about that either.

At any rate, the road has been long and diagnosis brought us little beyond having it and a trial on Aricept that has been discontinued as he seems clearer without it.  I had fallen down that rabbit hole of thinking “now we will get somewhere” upon diagnosis and fought the growing knowledge that “no we are not.” 

Over the last 2 years I have struggled, whined, cried, raged, and worried about how to help him help himself when I should have been focusing on learning how to help me help him….and myself.

With him being relatively stable most of the time, brick by brick, I am finally closer to being there.  And, I need to be so I can roll better with the changes that are bound to come in the future.

One can only maintain some small hope that one day a great and powerful wizard will have some tangible, working answers.  In the mean, we keep tripping down dementia’s yellow brick road.