(Originally posted in Facebook on February 13, 2019)
By the time M was able to schedule the long, four-hour psychological assessment, it was well into the fall – late September/October. And we started this process back in January.
The day of the assessment, M wanted me to go with him – even though all I would be doing is sitting in the waiting room for four hours. I knew he was nervous, so I loaded my Kindle with some new books and settled in for a morning of people-watching in the waiting room. There was a 10-minute break during the testing and M was very concerned when he came out to talk to me. He knew he wasn’t doing well, but couldn’t really describe the types of questions he was being asked. At the conclusion of the testing, the psychologist met with both of us for a few minutes and told us that, although he would need some time (of course!) to accurately score the assessment, he did believe M needed further neurological assistance for his cognitive issues.
HOWEVER, in the many months that had passed since our initial meeting with the neurologist in this particular practice, the entire practice had been purchased by a new health system and the neurologist had left the practice. So now, we had a neurology practice without a neurologist. Did we have another neurologist to whom he could send his final report?
Great.
My initial thought was to work exclusively with the neurologist we had been seeing for our migraine headache issue, but I found out that she doesn’t work with dementia and cognitive issues. Fortunately, she recommended another local neurologist who could help us and we were able to get an appointment with him in November. By the time we got in to see him, he had the results from all of M’s blood work, CT scan, MRI and psychological assessment. He was incredibly nice, very enthusiastic about the work we had already done and determined to get to the bottom of what’s going on. You’ll never believe what he wanted to do next.
ONE. MORE. TEST.
If you think you can hear M yelling from where you’re sitting, you’re not wrong. He was NOT HAPPY about having to be subjected to another test, but he did it.