Kate Swaffer has just been a keynote speaker at the NZ Alzheimer's conference in Wellington.
As many of you will know Kate was diagnosed with Early onset dementia at 49 years of age. Since her diagnosis she has gone on to complete her Bachelors and Masters degrees and is now working on her doctorate. She certainly did not take her doctors advice and give up on life.
Tonight she will find out if she has been named as the South Australian winner of the Australian of the Year for her work with dementia. Good luck Kate.
I am interested in how diagnosis is now so early. Early this century my mother was concerned about her memory and talked to the doctor about it. He told her it was nothing. I have found that many doctors don't really want to know about Alzheimer's.
She insisted on having an assessment at the hospital. My mother was a highly intelligent woman who always looked after her health. At the hospital they obviously gave her a cognitive test which she was easily able to achieve. They then told her she was in the top 25% for her age group. Of course this does not take into account on where she was a few years before that - no base line to compare to. Less than 8 years later she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Moderate to Advanced. I later realised that she would have been in the early stages when she first went to the doctor. I have wondered if there was something they could have done at that stage or whether it was better to live a great quality of life for those years. I am not sure at this time what is better. I know that when we know more and have better drugs that early intervention will hold the key.
