Is it me? Or is this article absurd? Please tell me I am misinterpreting this.
This guy (who has some letters after his name and is writing for what I assume is a reputable magazine – Psychology Today) seems to be suggesting that even though Coach Pat Summit was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease (by Mayo Clinic no less), she may just have Mild Cognitive Impairment and maybe she just needs to adopt a few strategies to make things right.
The author actually states: Sorry, Pat, but your age puts you on the doorstep of the next stage of life called the "young-old" years.
Don't worry, we will all know if it is AD sometime next year. When sadly, Pat Summit can no longer tell time, plan a day, balance a check book, know a remote from a cordless phone, carry on a conversation.......
He did say Mayo probably got it right. DH was dx'd as ALZ - however, we determined later that it was MCI, which would probably develop into full-blown ALZ. With medications, no or little stress, and keeping things as "normal" as possible, we were able to live with the MCI for about 4-5 years before it started to progress.
I guess he's trying to say that it's still a good idea to keep yourself healthy as much as you can and not succumb by just giving up. Maybe that's his point. Here, our collective experience tends to tell us that usually by the time we achieve an AD Dx, there's hardly ever any question about it. Vickie just presented a slightly different order of events, so you never know.
I heard her news conference last week . She said she was "going to beat this thing." One thing she really is doing, by going public with it, is raising awareness and raising money for Alz. People are buying the "We've got your back, Pat" tee shirts like crazy and I understand that all the proceeds are going to Alz research, etc.
Maybe there's something good, in an awful way, about that. If someone prominent publicly claims that she's going to "beat" AD, her inevitable failure to do so might wake a few people up to the reality.