blog
Diagnosis
All of the normal triggers for Alzheimer’s don’t apply to my case.
Earlier I reported back on my thoughts on an article which appeared in The Eye, April 2015. It revolved around a piece of work currently undertaken at Duke University in North Carolina, which examined new ground being broken in trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, by way of finding a potential cause, which could be along the lines of infections which have affected the brain.
What I now wanted to do is to talk a little bit about my own personal experience. I was diagnosed at the age of 54 with dementia, and the form of dementia which I have is Alzheimer’s. Now all of the normal triggers if you like for Alzheimer’s don’t apply to my case. I was only 54 so age which is the biggest risk factor wasn’t the reason why I have it. Secondly my diet is very good, I don’t drink very much, I don’t smoke, I keep reasonably fit, both mentally and physically. I did do a reasonably stressful job by way of a head teacher and a primary school advisor, but I seem to thrive on the stress, so I don’t think that was a terribly big factor in my onset of Alzheimer’s.
What I did have, for a period of about two or three years prior to diagnosis, was a series of infections which affected various parts of my body – waterworks, nasal area, sinuses, thyroid was up the creek. And generally speaking I went through a period of being not terribly well, but still planning on working most of the time. I did have an operation on my sinuses, which seemed, on the surface, to have maybe helped. And we wondered, Rosemary and I, my wife, wondered, if maybe the infections which affected my head had possibly affected my brain as well. And that possibly my story links into that of those who are being studied within this piece of work.
For so long the researchers have gone up the certain avenue along amyloid entangles and plaques, but now maybe this is going to open up a new door which will help people coming through and those of us who perhaps have developed Alzheimer’s through this route.
An audi version of this blog is available at: https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/keith-1-nottingham-uni
Paul Hitchmough
Musician
Dementia Diaries
Paul is amateur musician, from Liverpool. Paul was diagnosed with dementia in February 2014, at the age of 61. He was alone at home when the consultant arrived, an experience he recounts in his blog 'Diagnosis'.Paul's blogs form part of a national project called 'Dementia Diaries'. The Dementia Diarists use custom-built reporting phones to share their experiences of living with the condition. For more of their stories, visit dementiadiaries.org or @DementiaTweets
