Friday, October 04, 2013
Assessment
We (or Bill) is now in the system.
I guess that is as far as we have got........but I did leave feeling a strong urge to hug the nurse.
The assessment covered a lot and lasted nearly 2 hours.
It was good to hear Bill talking.
But I am sure it was noticed how he turned to me almost all the time expecting me to find answers for him.
I am sure that Stella, the nurse, was not hoodwinked into believing him when he told of her of his many and varied interests.
He conceded that his interest in cycling had waned!!! When was he last in the cycle club? About 50 years ago.
He told her he was interested in photography. My answer to the same question had to report that his interest went as far as carrying a camera - not in taking or dealing with photographs. The interest was in the past.
Bill wanted Stella to think that his interest in the shop was as it ever was.
He was good with numbers.
He was good on some of the simpler recognition tests.
Interestingly when asked to name as many things beginning with P as possible in a minute he didn't jump in with the simple things he could see like pen and pencil and paper. He came up with words like perpendicular and other longer words.....goodness knows what she made of pinkywinky!
He was asked to write a sentence - any sentence. I think both Stella and I were a bit gobsmacked with
"The astronaut climbed out of the spacecraft and fell to earth."
Where did that come from?
He couldn't remember the name of the Prime Minister - even in a week when he has been on TV news a lot. But he did know the name of Barack Obama and Margaret Thatcher. He couldn't remember the name of the American president who was assasinated in the early 1960s - didn't recall such a thing happening.
Stella was also checking physical health and family medical history.
Basically - what did his parents die of? He replied "Old age"
I knew just how wide of the mark he was......and I asked him specifically what his mother had died of.
He didn't know.
His Mum had a brain tumour and died in the local hospice. We had been at the hospice a lot. Bill registered the death.
I asked Stella about the noisy clapping, tapping etc.
She said she had not come across this as a symptom of the type of problems Bill is displaying.
I told her that it may well be that Bill has strong autististic tendencies.......not able to express himself well and not at all about his emotional being and not being empathetic with the needs of others.
She said that could be a possibility, but we both wondered why the habit has developed along with the memory loss and lack of interest in activities of life.
She should have known.....put dementia and clapping or dementia and repetitive behaviour into Google and information is there for all to read.
She did talk to me about the need to get power of attorney. Well, that is a job for next week!
Bill thought that power of attorney was dealing with things after you have died.
There was much, much more.
What happens now is that Stella will take her notes and knowledge to discuss Bill with the doctor she works with.
Almost 100% certain will be an MRI scan. That should be within 6 weeks.
Only after that can medication be prescribed - once they have a clearer picture of what they are dealing with.
Bill has agreed to be part of a research programme and that will involved a deeper and longer MRI scan.
I hope that within 10 days we will know when the scan will be.
The assessment was carried out in Maidenbower - one of the newest parts of Crawley.
Now forgive me people who live there and love it there, but from the outside it seems to have an artificial atmosphere to it. They call it a village and it is almost as if building a variety of cottagey old style housing, have made a new housing development a village.
The Maidenbower pub is a 15th century farmhouse......Frogshole Farm.
The building is attractive and old.
But it has been overdeveloped.
Some of that became a necessity when the building was badly damaged by fire a few years ago.
Inside I didn't feel any atmosphere - though it was busy.
The service was good as was our jacket potatoes, But I wasn't tempted to linger like we have done in other pubs of late.
I guess that is as far as we have got........but I did leave feeling a strong urge to hug the nurse.
The assessment covered a lot and lasted nearly 2 hours.
It was good to hear Bill talking.
But I am sure it was noticed how he turned to me almost all the time expecting me to find answers for him.
I am sure that Stella, the nurse, was not hoodwinked into believing him when he told of her of his many and varied interests.
He conceded that his interest in cycling had waned!!! When was he last in the cycle club? About 50 years ago.
He told her he was interested in photography. My answer to the same question had to report that his interest went as far as carrying a camera - not in taking or dealing with photographs. The interest was in the past.
Bill wanted Stella to think that his interest in the shop was as it ever was.
He was good with numbers.
He was good on some of the simpler recognition tests.
Interestingly when asked to name as many things beginning with P as possible in a minute he didn't jump in with the simple things he could see like pen and pencil and paper. He came up with words like perpendicular and other longer words.....goodness knows what she made of pinkywinky!
He was asked to write a sentence - any sentence. I think both Stella and I were a bit gobsmacked with
"The astronaut climbed out of the spacecraft and fell to earth."
Where did that come from?
He couldn't remember the name of the Prime Minister - even in a week when he has been on TV news a lot. But he did know the name of Barack Obama and Margaret Thatcher. He couldn't remember the name of the American president who was assasinated in the early 1960s - didn't recall such a thing happening.
Stella was also checking physical health and family medical history.
Basically - what did his parents die of? He replied "Old age"
I knew just how wide of the mark he was......and I asked him specifically what his mother had died of.
He didn't know.
His Mum had a brain tumour and died in the local hospice. We had been at the hospice a lot. Bill registered the death.
I asked Stella about the noisy clapping, tapping etc.
She said she had not come across this as a symptom of the type of problems Bill is displaying.
I told her that it may well be that Bill has strong autististic tendencies.......not able to express himself well and not at all about his emotional being and not being empathetic with the needs of others.
She said that could be a possibility, but we both wondered why the habit has developed along with the memory loss and lack of interest in activities of life.
She should have known.....put dementia and clapping or dementia and repetitive behaviour into Google and information is there for all to read.
She did talk to me about the need to get power of attorney. Well, that is a job for next week!
Bill thought that power of attorney was dealing with things after you have died.
There was much, much more.
What happens now is that Stella will take her notes and knowledge to discuss Bill with the doctor she works with.
Almost 100% certain will be an MRI scan. That should be within 6 weeks.
Only after that can medication be prescribed - once they have a clearer picture of what they are dealing with.
Bill has agreed to be part of a research programme and that will involved a deeper and longer MRI scan.
I hope that within 10 days we will know when the scan will be.
The assessment was carried out in Maidenbower - one of the newest parts of Crawley.
Now forgive me people who live there and love it there, but from the outside it seems to have an artificial atmosphere to it. They call it a village and it is almost as if building a variety of cottagey old style housing, have made a new housing development a village.
The Maidenbower pub is a 15th century farmhouse......Frogshole Farm.
The building is attractive and old.
But it has been overdeveloped.
Some of that became a necessity when the building was badly damaged by fire a few years ago.
Inside I didn't feel any atmosphere - though it was busy.
The service was good as was our jacket potatoes, But I wasn't tempted to linger like we have done in other pubs of late.
