PROLOGUE
page 12
"More than 100 years since Auguste's diagnosis (first patient dx'd w AZ) and death.
And yet the typical time from diagnosis to death for those with Alzheimer's has remained the same,
about EIGHT YEARS.
THE SMELL OF BAKING BREAD
13 years ago; Dr Gibbs first sign of AZ?
page 27
"False odors are called phantosmias."
I was smelling Pot link
Dr Gibbs Internist had him get a MRI which he didn't think he needed.
It turned out the MRI showed a Pineal Gland tumor.
The tumor was large enough to press on his optic nerve but so far did not affect his vision. The benign tumor was removed uneventfully.
A SUBBORN PUZZLE
PAGE 39
THE NEUROSURGEON "had never seen a pituitary tumor..cause loss of smell."
p 61
By the beginning of 2013, "by most standards I was still cognitively normal."
At age 62 he was concerned by nagging with recall
of names and words and he was homozygous for ApoE 4 for AZ.
p 64
About a year after retiring as 1964 began he went to a dementia specialist for formal cognitive assesment.
Results were normal except for delayed verbal recall which gave him the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
p 75
In 2015 his cognitive test was unchanged except for a high score on depression.
Dr. Gibbs doesn't discuss if he went on antidepressants?
P 83 September 2015
"there they were the unmistable tell-tale signs of
Alzheimers on the Amyloid Pet Scan and the Tau Pet scan.
p 87
Dr Gibbs cognitive scores were better than could be expected based on his scans.
Dr Gibbs "suggested that lifetime habits of study and stretching to learn and other stimulating cognitive activity, contribute to so-called cognitive reserve, a kind of brain bank of neural cells or networks that provided back up, or created resiliance, that might be keeping my cognitive function high despite the presence of brain atrophy and accumulations of plaques and tangles normally seen in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.
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