Pawprints From Space

For those who think that answering questions is easy, no big deal, try doing that for two hours straight when your brain is bound and determined to undermine anything and everything you are trying to say. That's what Mom experienced yesterday. We drove almost two hours to OSU Wexner - Martha Morehouse Tower, 7th Floor neurology clinic - and for two hours she answered cognitive testing questions and I answered questions about her emotions, state of mind, depression and anxiety for the both us (yes, I am in therapy but that's another story) and set parameters of what she might/should remember over the last month plus questions about her emotional health/state of mind. Then there is nearly the two hours drive back to Lima. I actually fell asleep while driving back. For about 3 seconds. I don't think she noticed. At least I hope not. So we pulled off in a rest area outside of Bellefontaine so I could take a 20 minute power-catnap. I can do that, I realize a lot of peo...

Tomorrow is visit #1 for the clinical trial Mom has been accepted into in Columbus. To save my sanity, what's left of it (thank you kitties), I am going to blog my way through this journey. The study is being conducted by Merck . The drug in question (MK-8931 aka SCH 900931) is designed to treat Alzheimer's rather than Primary Progressive Aphasia , which Mom actually has - but PPA is rare (approximately 40,000 nationwide in 2013). And her sort isn't too common within that group being the logopenic variant . There are a limited number of research centers in the U.S. that are even looking at PPA. Northwestern in Chicago is the closest. Mayo Clinic is another and UC San Francisco is the third. That's pretty much it, so nothing nearby. And since PPA is rare, the research money goes to the greater "need", the larger population base. I understand that, it makes a kind of mercenary sense - it's good business. But despite my understanding the way things ...