A-ha moment Tuesday

I had great news this morning. When we were at Dr. Shtrahman's (Dave's neuro) last Monday, he had an a-ha moment. There's several things that he does every three months, and one is what they call a mme test. It stands for mini-mental exam. He asks Dave 10 questions designed to use all parts of the brain, and then scores him out of a possible 30. Dave consistantly scores 19-20. He also spends alot of time testing his reflexes, which Dave hates. Everytime he does the reflex testing, he brings in another neuro to do the same test. For the past year, I thought this was sop (standard operating procedure). Well, this past Monday, the head of Neurology happened to be there, and he came in and did the second reflex test. Half way thru the test, he looked at Dr. Shtrahman and said "yes, there it is". (another a-ha moment!) Now for the past year, Dr. Shtrahman has seen something in the reflexes that he couldn't get anyone else to see, until Monday. They went out into the hallway, and when they came back in, they explained that neither one of them specialize in dementia, so because of what they saw, they asked if we would consider sending Dave to the UCLA Memory Clinic so he can be evaluated by a team of neuros who specialize un dementia. Of course, we said yes. Dr. Shtrahaman was going to start Dave on Namenda on Monday (it's a cousin to Aricept, which Dave can't take), but after consulting, they decided to wait until he's evaluated at the Memory Clinic. Now, on to the good news....the Memory Clinic called this morning, and Dave is being seen on May 28th. Keep in mind this won't change the diagnosis, but it could open Dave up to participate in some Clinical Trials. For those of us dealing with this horrible disease, that's the best possible news. I'm trying so hard to stay positive. I don't get much support from family and friends, but I know that unless people are dealing with this, they don't know the struggles. I didn't say that to be deragatory in any way, please know that. I understand. No worries at this point, I have my cherished support group. God Bless them each and every day. The last week has been filled with a-ha moments, both good and bad. We continue to struggle forward, one step at a time. Keep coming back, you all are so important to me. See ya in the blogosphere tomorrow!