Life after diagnosis…
Chapter I
The Big “D”
There were three life-changing moments that led to Dad being diagnosed with vascular dementia. Many of us have heard phrases like, “Your life can change in an instant” or “In a blink of an eye”. Well, that had little meaning to me prior to the three events that changed the trajectory of our entire family’s future. Our lives changed the moment we heard those words, “vascular dementia.”
Wait … what? What does that mean? Should we be afraid? Is he going to die? Can you fix it?
After the initial shock of hearing those words, and it sinking in a bit, I had to step back and ask, “What in the world is vascular dementia anyway?”
Due to dad’s high blood pressure, the doctor indicated that it was caused by mini-strokes that, in most instances, go undetected. Okay, so it’s caused by mini-strokes s a result (in most cases) of high blood pressure. So all we need to do is make sure we keep his blood pressure under control and avoid those mini-strokes from happening. Right?
As we would soon find out, controlling blood pressure wasn’t even the half of it! And it wasn’t the solution to “fixing” this dementia thing.