Not really of course - the spots she has are almost as bad. She has dead spots in several places that keep track of memories. We got to see the images from the MRI while the doc explained it all. The areas of the brain were very clear - including the problem spots: ventricles, hippocampi and overall shrinkage were easy to identify. So were the dead spots which show up as white spots. The doc was very patient while he explained and pointed to things. It was fascinating to me, although very hard to listen to.



I love the word hippocampi, and how it just rolls off the tongue. They are supposed to be shaped kind of like styrofoam peanuts, and have the lead role in long term memory stuff. Hers have shrunk and look more like Cheetos and they're dotted with problems.

He explained that the dead brain tissue was due to lack of blood supply. That sounds really scarey to me. She said her mother's doctor diagnosed the same thing in her. Now that scares the sh*t out of me. Am I going to get that in the future? He put her on Aricept and we'll see if it helps. It won't bring her memory, etc, back, but I might slow down or even stop further decline. He set her up for some neuro-psych testing in March.

Until we saw the doc, she insisted that she was fine and there was no problem. She hasn't said that since. It doesn't seem to be affecting her emotionally yet - I would probably be a total meltdown if it was my brain.