Hello all, although I don't post much, I do read here almost daily. As a quick re-cap, my wife was dx in July of last year at age 52, I'm 46. We saw a neurologist at New York University for a 2nd opinion. Results came in yesterday & based on the PET Scan, she is in the early stages of AD. He put her in 5mg of Aricept. She's very happy with the neurologist at NYU. He seems to really advocate for the patient. The first one was terrible......he seemed content to DX her after just 1 neuro-psych test & a couple of memory exercises. Then he said "come back in 6 months". Yes, I have a long road, but reading what all of you share has been very insightful.
You are fortunate to have found a Neurologist that gives you confidence. Ours had the personality of a three inch piece of string and, despite tests to the contrary, declined to DX MCI and frontal lobe dimension. You may also want to consider a psychiatrist. Most are very good a helping to manage the variety of behavioral meds you may need in the future.
Glad you've found a neurologist you're comfortable with; that's a big help in the journey. Sorry you're so young to have launched on this path, but there's "gobs" of help on this site w/navigating the waters as well as encouragement.
I am sorry to hear of your wife's diagnoses, is tough at any age, but sure does break my heart when I see someone so young diagnosed. I am glad you have found a neurologist with heart, that was half our battle. Zibby, "gobs" is a good word :) Keep posting, it really does help.
jcapo3, you are "lucky" (even though you might not feel that way) you've found a caring neurologist you like and that your spouse has a diagnosis. The neuro we went to for DH was an idiot-never even told us what the diagnosis was -his nurse told me (after I called the day after the visit) that the dx was "pre-senile dementia". When I asked what that meant, she said it could be many things.
I am sorry you both are going through this at such an early age.
I encourage everyone to request 'progress notes' from each doctor visit. I find information there that I was not told. If not for those I would never had known the opinions of that first neuropsych test. Oh, I did not request them but when we were in Nevada, the VA doctor he went to printed them out and gave to him. I was surprised but glad. Who knows how long it would have taken to find out otherwise.
Oh, having a copy of all that comes in handy if you apply for SSDI. From suggestions here I included a copy of all doctor visits regarding the diagnosis with his application - just in case the doctors never got it sent in. If it helped I dont' know - just glad I did though.