The verdict is in - after seeing a specialist up here yesterday (after a three-month wait), it turns out that Mom most likely does have PSP (progressive supranuclear palsy), and not frontal lobe dementia. We were hoping for straight Parkinson's -- Can you believe anyone has ever hoped for Parkinson's? -- because the symptoms are much more treatable. I had hopes of an Awakenings-like miracle with her on levodopa. Suddenly, Mom again! Laughing, talkative, capable. There she'd be, serving the kids breakfast when I came downstairs. Instead, this morning she tried to make the bed with me still in it.
But PSP it is. It is still primarily a movement disorder, and big risks down the road are the inability to walk or to swallow. Still, Mom has a better chance of retaining more of her mental faculties than if she had FLD. So we'll take what comes.
It occurs to me that perhaps I should change the name of this blog.
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