The last couple of my blogs have been excerpts from a draft of the book I’m finishing for Guideposts on my family’s experience with Alzheimer’s, especially my mother’s battle with the disease. I’ll now return to the medical exploration of my own susceptibility to the disease, which I will continue to share with you prior to the book’s publication next year.
As I’ve mentioned, I freak out at every little misfire of my memory. Many of you have shared the same fear (keep sharing, please). On a recent follow-up visit with my neurologist, Dr. Salinas—I forgot his name there for a second—he mentioned that I had done marginally worse on a couple of the memory tests this time than last. Of course, that set off an inner frenzy of worry even as I tried to calmly explain that maybe I didn’t get the best night’s sleep. He’s referring me to a neuropsychologist as a next step.
I take a lot of different memory tests online. Some I perform well on and some not so much (I’m terrible at pattern recognition tests). My wife Julee tells me I should lay off these tests—I probably couldn’t have done some of them any better 20 years ago. But I have a perverse attraction to them, as if they can tell me more than they actually can. Why put my faith in tests when there is a so much greater use of faith?
But I’m curious. Do any of you test your memories online and worry about the results? Let me know here.
