OK, I'm obviously losing it. I could have sworn there was a post by a newbie yesterday, but durned if I can find the post today to answer it.
If you're out there ... there is a chance that your husband's polymyalgia rheumatica is causing the cognitive problems that were diagnosed as MCI. And I found several papers and books that said that with proper corticosteroid treatment, there is a possibility that the cognitive problems can be reversed.
See, for example,
http://smj.sma.org.sg/4903/4903le2.pdf (especially ref 14) This can be downloaded for free
Also:
Cerebrovascular Disease and Dementia By Raymond Bonnett, John O'Brien, Lars Gustafson, and Marshal F. Folstein 2004 p 9-10 "...Of clinical and principal interest is a group of unusual dementias, caused by infections and inflammatory vascular disease, some of them treatable and reversible. This group contains such diseases as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), giant cell arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, polyarteritis nodosa and Buerger's disease."
If you or your husband's doctors would like more info, the author of the 2008 paper is:
Joseph Martin Alisky Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation 1000 Oak Avenue Marshfield Wisconsin 54449 USA Tel: (1) 715 669 5536 Fax: (1) 715 669 5804 Email: alisky.joseph@marshfieldclinic.org
The post you remember may have been mine. I deleted it, because no one had replied after 24 hours. I got temporarily angry, because that seems to happen often with my posts. Thank you for the references. I will read them and take them with us when my husband sees his neurologist on November 3rd.
I read your references. Thank you so much. I tried to find information about links between dementia and polymyalgia rheumatica and didn't have much luck. You are incredible!
Welcome to our group. I'm hoping that you are dealing with one of the few dementias that can actually be reversed. Sunshyne has found a couple of them now. While you are dealing with it all, stay and let us help you deal. And if this is one of those lucky times, please come back and let us know. Any hope, for anyone, is a blessing for all of us.
Whew! I was beginning to think I'd been hallucinating.
I actually found a bunch of other stuff, those were just the ones written in plain English. I had to search under other terms (e.g., vasculitic disorders) to find much; and then it got confusing, trying to figure out how to explain the relationships for you, especially when I tripped across a new term and wasn't sure what it covered.
Polymyalgia rheumatica is often associated with "giant cell arteritis" (GCA, aka "temporal arteritis"), which can also cause dementia-like symptoms. (So does "cranial arteritis", but I'm not sure if that's a synonym for GCA.) Some papers said that GCA can be misdiagnosed as polymyalgia rheumatica, but requires higher levels of steroids for proper treatment. I gather that there has been considerable controversy over whether they are actually two distinct disorders. The present thinking is, apparently, that polymyalgia rheumatica and GCA are probably two different expressions of the same underlying vasculitic disorder. This is one of those gray areas, where researchers are still struggling to understand what's actually going on. They haven't found a cause for either one / both.
If the doctors haven't talked to you about GCA, ask. The temporal arteries in the front side of the head begin to narrow and can become blocked and result in lost vision. I gather the onset of blindness can be sudden, and you need to know what symptoms to watch out for. GCA responds to treatment, but if it isn't properly treated, once visual loss is established, it may not be reversible.
...with regard to people responding to your posts, some days are pretty slow here, especially on the weekends. Don't think we don't care just because we haven't responded. It's much more likely we just haven't been reading here, or got interrupted and had to charge off madly to take care of something (like I did Saturday). If your thread sinks toward the bottom, bring it up with another post that says HEY you guys!!! PAY ATTENTION!!! We will. Really.
...the other thing that can happen is that someone busily types an answer to your post, and then hits the "back" or "discussion" button instead of the "add your comments" button. Poof!!! No answer, even though we thought it was there.
This JUST happened to me ... again ... trying to respond to baltobob's thread on handicapped tags. I could have sworn I hit the right button... (Maybe I *am* losing it.)
Janet, we are all under such tremendous stress in our lives with our spouses in their conditions, and we have become extremely sensitive. I have gotten my feelings hurt when no one responded to me on numerous occasions, before I realized that it might have been the way I phrased it, or a lot of people weren't able to answer at that time or didn't know the answer to my questions. However, please make a note - WE CARE AND WE ARE HERE FOR YOU AND WELCOME!
Sometimes our brains are fried and we just read and plan to get back later with replies when we have time and brain power! We have become good friends here and count on each other!
I was off for a week and no one even noticed!!!! <grin>
Says you. I don't start to panic until one of our regulars has been missing for at least ten days. I kind of hesitate to call attention to someone being off for a shorter period of time, in case it has to do with something sensitive, that they don't want to talk about.