My friend's 78 year old brother was just given the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)

[dflprincess]

He scored 18 which is right on the border of mild and moderate cognitive impairment. They want to do an MRI to see if he's had any minor strokes or if something else is going on.

His doctor wants to repeat the MoCa in 6 months.

This all sounds so familiar and, no, his name is not Donald.

[murielm99]

1. Yikes

I hope he is okay.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

2. Was that a perfect 18? tRump says his was perfect. Whatever the hell that means.

[Old Crank]

3. No more MRI tests for me above the waist.

I get a splitting headache from the cochlear implant.
If one is required the magnet will have to be surgically removed first.

[Randomthought]

4. Our brains shrink as we age

An MRI can measure the shrinkage.

[Jarqui]

5. My mother got repeated work ups

They did everything trying to get to the bottom of it.

At the end of their efforts, they were honest: they were not sure if it was vascular dementia or Alzheimer's. She had dropped to a MoCA of 14. Symptoms started 2004. This was about 2008. She lived until 2018.
Mostly, it was a tough, brutal demise for all of us.

But there was this phase she went through over a period of years. She had always been very nervous and too conscious socially. But in this phase, she became child-like and with it carefree for the first time in her life. She was laughing and enjoying life like I had never seen her - no worries or anxiety. I was so glad she finally got to experience that - obviously sorry it couldn't have neem when she was healthier. Later, she thought I was her dear brother who had been dead for 30+ years. We had the most amazing conversations.

It was a horrible ordeal the vast majority of the time. But there were some remarkable, special moments I was grateful for.

[Wednesdays]

6. Similar to my mother.

I posted on another thread that the last two years of my mother's life, she was happy as a clam. Because she had forgotten all the things that caused her pain, worry, guilt, and regret.