Rebecca Luna says she does not remember the day before “seven to eight times out of 10.”
She sometimes goes out in the midst of conversations with friends: “It’s almost as if I was not there, it’s black and it’s empty. It is a complete nothingness.
When she arrives, she doesn’t know what she just said or doing. -Two’s mother also forgot to turn off the stove and started her car without knowing it.
These towers are all part of Luna’s rare diagnosis: Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the beginning.
Her symptoms started two years ago, and she started to see psychiatrists for her memory `Blips’ ADHD. Luna also suffers from alcoholism for years – she is now 15 years old – and feared that her touches could be repercussions of her dependence.
It was only when a neurologist administered a two -hour cognitive test, which she failed and took detailed MRI analyzes that she learned the truth nine months ago.
The Canadian origin has fought that neurodegenerative disease the prinera of time with its children and had to explain to them that, given its diagnosis, The mother they know her as will probably begin to disappear In a few years.
Early Alzheimer’s disease is more progressive, with a shorter life expectancy of about eight years of diagnosis.
Rebecca Luna’s early Alzheimer’s symptoms appeared about two years ago. She would be unleashed in half-conversation, lost her keys only to find them in the ignition of her car, forget what she did the day before, and left home at home for an hour before returning to find her kitchen full of smoke
Luna said: “It is really difficult to think of this kind of thing because I am in denial. So when my brain is like, let’s look at the facts, sometimes I look at my neurology documentation with all the scientific facts – they are not only out of nowhere, they are not perimenopause.
“I have to watch these things to make it real for me because I love to clear up … It’s a progressive disease. We attract it very early, which is incredible, but there is no remedy.
Luna had noticed an increasing number of disturbing instances over about two years in which she did not remember doing basic and everyday tasks.
One day, she returned to her car in the gymnasium parking lot and realized that she could not find her keys. She checked and under the car and even looked at the roof, thinking that she had left them there as she had done in the past with her coffee.
Then she realized: the car was running and the keys were in contact. She had already got into the car and had lit it but she did not register.
“My car was all this time. I had completely failed the process of penetrating, putting the key in it and turning on the contact, ”she said Yahoo!.
Another time, she started boiling an egg on the stove, forgot it and left the house for about half an hour.
When she finally realized what she had done, she ran home to find her kitchen filled with smoke.
Using data from the study of the heart of Framingham until 2009, the researchers estimated that at 45 years old, the lifetime risk of dementia of Alzheimer’s dementia was around 20% for women and 10 percnet for men, with risks slightly higher at 65 years
“So it literally attracted my house to fire,” she said.
Luna’s psychiatrist administered several cognitive tests, which ask people to recall words, name objects, follow simple instructions or draw forms. Doctors also check memory, language and problem solving skills.
She failed them all.
Nine months ago, when she went to a neurologist for specialized care to confirm what the tests had found, she underwent a larger series of tests evaluating her memory, her attention, her language, her reasoning, her visual-spatial skills and her emotional health.
Each test of the neurological evaluation has its own notation system according to what is normal for the age of a person beyond simply looking at if the patient obtained a high or low score during a test.
At the end, the doctor reviews all the results of individual tests to identify certain models, such as a generally low memory score with normal attention and language skills.
This helps the doctor to identify the signs that his patient is dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, the type of dementia, the first symptom of which is memory problems.
Luna said: “ Then he looked at my MRI, looked at other things noted by the psychiatrist, and he just entered Alzheimer’s brochures at the start of the start.
“There was no diagnosis at that time. It was his suspicion.
Other tests, including his medial temporal atrophy score (MTA), which is a diagnostic tool for dementia, has led to a diagnosis of early early Alzheimer.
Alzheimer’s early early affects a small subset of the population diagnosed with this form of dementia which slows the memory caused by the narrowing of cerebral tissues.
Just Five percent Of nearly 7 million Americans with disease, are diagnosed between 45 and 65, long before the average age of diagnosis of 80 years.
Early Alzheimer’s disease is not typical Alzheimer’s disease at a younger age. He Often in families. In some cases, it is transmitted directly from parent to child, while in others, people can inherit a mixture of genes that increase their risk.
The disease tends to progress more quickly in people with an early diagnosis compared to those who develop it later in life.
Even after taking into account the general risks of aging, people with early Alzheimer’s have a higher risk of dying compared to those with late or typical Alzheimer’s.
This causes a significant number of premature deaths in adults aged 40 to 64 caused by complications due to Alzheimer’s disease, such as infections, crises and pneumonia caused by food or liquid enters the lungs instead of the esophagus.
The wide variety of death causes means quantifying the annual report linked to the condition is difficult to identify. However, around 120,000 people with Alzheimer’s, both typical and early early, died in 2022 (the most recent year for which data is available).
In addition to administering long cognitive tests, Luna’s doctor took scans from his brain to document the withdrawal that had happened so far. It is not Luna’s scan, but shows what the atrophy of the brain looks like
While Alzheimer’s disease at the beginning of the beginning is often hereditary, Luna did not say if she had family history of the condition.
In addition, people with early Alzheimer’s Alzheimer often last about 1.6 years more before diagnosing than those with late Alzheimer’s, probably because the symptoms are missed or doctors take more time to assess younger patients.
After her diagnosis, Luna’s family, including her daughter and mother, is in denial.
She said, “About two months ago, I sent him (my mother) the clinical notes (of the doctor) where he put alzheimer’s on it. And she lost it then because I think she didn’t believe him until she came on a piece of paper.
“It’s so weird. I don’t care that all the time because it is generally who I am. I like to keep things a little light and funny. It is important for me to make fun of myself, to keep my morale high for people around me, but I also need it because it is so serious.
“I could totally take this and simply go to an isolation / depression hanger, and I don’t want to do that.
Luna started a Tiktok account where she updates her 29,000 subscribers on her symptoms, her daily life and her advice for personal care.
The Alzheimer’s association provides that the number of Americans aged 65 and more alive with Alzheimer’s dementia will drop from 6.7 million in 2023 to 12.7 million by 2050, driven largely by the aging generation of baby-boomers, which risks a higher risk of disease of the disease disease
She has found a community on the site and many useful advice from people in the comments section, enduring similar diagnoses or helping a loved one to cope.
Some of the best she heard and implemented minimize the congestion in her house, making lists for reading songs that bring her back to herself, and journalization during the day: “Because what is one of my new things is that I shower and then two hours later, I feel like I need to take a shower.
She added: “If you are a loved one (someone with Alzheimer’s), my suggestion is to meet them where they are.
“What I found really useful with my partner is not to be questioned but recalled, and simply believe them. And give them a hug. Tell them you love them. Because really, if I am completely honest, what I need is a hug of my family.
