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It took me a while to 'decode' this. But Basically, it's not good. I also just realized my mom has a sinus blockage. That hasn't even ever been addressed.
Here are the results of the MRI Bran Scan for my Mom. I edited some of this for privacy.
MRI Brain.
Comparison: None.
Indication: Alzheimer's disease.
Technique: Multisequential multi planar MRI of the brain without
contrast.
Findings: Advanced volume, greater than expected for age, particularly
involving the temporal and posterior parietal lobes bilaterally.
Scattered periventricular and deep white matter T2 signal abnormalities
consistent with chronic small vessel ischemic disease.
There are no masses, mass effect or midline shift. The gray and white
matter signal and contour is normal. The basal cisterns are visualized
and normal in size and configuration. There is no evidence of diffusion
restriction. The orbits and globes appear normal. Near complete
opacification of the right maxillary sinus with thin low signal internal
septations; the remaining paranasal sinuses are clear.
Impression:
1. Advanced volume loss for patient's age.
2. Chronic small vessel ischemic disease.
3. Right maxillary sinus retention cyst.
When I looked up Temporal Lobe in the brain, here is what I found:
The temporal lobes are parts of the cerebrum that are involved in speech, memory, and hearing. They lie at the sides of the brain, beneath the lateral or Sylvian fissure. Seen in profile, the human brain looks something like a boxing glove. The temporal lobes are where the thumbs would be.
The temporal lobe is involved in auditory processing and is home to the primary auditory cortex. It is also heavily involved in semantics both in speech and vision. The temporal lobe contains the hippocampus and is therefore involved in memory formation as well.
I guess that makes sense huh?
The second part I looked up was the Parietal Lobe. This explains the problems with driving. . .
The parietal lobe integrates sensory information from different modalities, particularly determining spatial sense and navigation. For example, it comprises somatosensory cortex and the dorsal stream of the visual system. This enables regions of the parietal cortex to map objects perceived visually into body coordinate positions.
Now what I wasn't sure of, is did my mom have a stroke? Was this not Alzheimer? There were a few weeks of hope there, that I remember thinking, hey she might not have alzheimers after all, and then the doctor confirmed this. He said to me over the phone, " Your mother has been officially diagnosed with Dementia NOS" or Dementia Not Otherwise Specified [in the DSMIV]
What does that mean exactly?
I found out that it meant they weren't sure exactly what caused her brain to 'shrink' or have so much white matter for her age, but they were sure that it wasn't functioning properly, however there were only certain areas that seemed to be effected, where as when someone has alzheimers, usually the whole brain is effected evenly, so the doctors thought it was Dementia rather than alzhimers technically.
What is the difference? What does that mean for my Mom?
I wasn't sure, but for the time being, it made me feel like maybe there was some hope.
