Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Who's demented, now.

Plenty of confusion and panic yesterday over upcoming summer travelling plans. Due to my stupidity I nearly wasted four non-refundable flights to Cebu I booked a few months ago. Apparently I also managed to forget whole conversations I had with B regarding travelling plans for the summer. Thanks to my mushy brain, I need to fork out $800 to change our flights. Completely avoidable had my brain been in better shape.

According to this quiz, I am not at risk for developing dementia any time soon. Phew. PHEW! And one more PHEWWWW! But then I thought... hang on a minute, this is the Daily Mail. Hey... wait a sec ... I've seen this test before...! this is one of those generic test where you can easily replace “dementia” with “heart disease”, “bowel cancer” or “tourrette syndrome” and it will work just as well! The bastards! So I concluded that the results are not to be trusted and I am in fact still very much likely to become demented (?) if I am not already.

So I dug deeper with my research:

This simple questionnaire has been prepared to assist you in determining whether your loved is ready for a special care program:

Please answer the following questions as honestly as you can: Does the person I am concerned about:

- Require assistance with dressing?
- Require assistance with showering?
- Forget to change his/her clothing?
- Forget to eat or requires help eating?
- Forget to take medications?
- Wander outside and is unable to find his/her way back home?
- Have difficulty knowing correct time, date and season?
- Leave kitchen appliances on?
- Withdraw from most or all social activities?
- Have trouble remembering things that just happened?
- Have trouble finding the rights words in the middle a sentence?
- Have trouble recalling the names of people, things and places?
- Unable to concentrate on any one task for a sustained period of time?
- Go to great lengths to cover up or hide deficits?
- Believe that everyday items have been stolen?
- Appear frustrated and/or depressed over his/her inability to manage routine tasks?
- Have family or friends become concerned or frustrated by the person's loss of ability to care for one's self?


It says if you reply "yes" to four or more, it is time to check in. I scored seven. It's worrying.

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