After the Test

We have now returned from Seattle, where I had a couple of hours of cognitive tests last Monday.  If you've been following me on this, you know it was for, among other things, a test to validate how well these tests can be done over Zoom.  They tested me over Zoom a few months ago, and now they want to compare the in-person results to see if they're consistent.  At the same time, they'll use the results as part of another study in which they are simply following people diagnosed with some form of cognitive impairment to see how they do over time.  I've been in this study for four years now.

They're not going to disclose the numerical results of the testing to me, but they are able to give me a sense for how I did.  After the results have been analyzed by a neuropsychologist, they'll call and discuss.  It helps that the principal investigator for the test is also my neurologist, so she may be able to be more forthcoming, especially since I'm due for pretty much the same tests with her office this summer.  I asked that they include a qualitative assessment of how I did in comparison to last year.

I learned that the neuropsychologist who will evaluate the results is a person who we discussed in Beating the Dementia Monster; the person who said I was on track to be dead by 75.  I was 66 at the time.  But, in his practice, he focuses on the role of lifestyle in fighting dementia.  At the time, I had just joined the gym and was flipping my lifestyle.  He said that if I would just keep that up, I'll live to 85.  And so it seems, since I'm 75 now.

Overall, I felt pretty well about how I did.  But they did throw a curve that I don't recall facing before.  They gave me a string of numbers and letters, and I had to sort them first numerically, and then alphabetically.  For example, if she says B 3 A 1, I would respond with 1 3 A B.  But how about UY94N7?  It gets really complicated really fast.  I don't know if I got any of them right. 

The trip to Seattle was good.  Our nine-year-old granddaughter was in a community musical production, and we got to see it on closing night.  We couldn't cross the mountains the next day due to snow in the pass, so we stayed another night.  This gave us a chance to take the two girls (the younger being 4) out to dinner at their favorite restaurant.  (They love it, but it's not going to become our favorite...)

Life is good.