I’m hoping I can ask my question here without cluttering things up by starting a whole new thread...
Can a brain CT scan (computed tomography, with the referral diagnosis being TIA) actually show signs of Alzheimer's disease? Specifically, I'm wondering about damage to the basal ganglia in the brainstem, which I’ve read online is something this disease causes...
The thing is, my father is scheduled for this scan in a few days, and since I won't be there, I won't have the chance to press the doctors for details myself...
And from what I've gathered, during that initial stage of patient assessment, doctors often miss it because everything still looks relatively normal on the surface...
Our family actually insisted on this scan because a month ago, we found him early one morning just tossing things around in a frenzy; once we finally got him to sit down, he knew all his details and ours perfectly well... but it was as if he were in a trance. He is a diabetic, and when we checked him immediately, his blood sugar was at 26. The ER staff told us everything was fine—that he just needed to stay until his levels stabilized using fast-acting insulin—and they maintained the cause was simply the sugar. We believe them, honestly, because he hadn't followed his regimen for two days prior and had recently been refusing his insulin; he's still on pills, though the doctors are pushing for insulin since he's such a high-risk patient with heart issues, diabetes, hypertension, and blood clotting concerns. That morning, until he finally got home and slept it off, he had no memory of the episode, and the explanation provided was hyperglycemia. I've heard that this is quite common for certain high-risk diabetics... so that was the verdict. We're sticking strictly to the rules now and monitoring everything regularly...
I'm terrified, though, because I've heard stories about how this could be a precursor to a stroke. We're acutely aware of that risk, especially if he doesn't stick to his regimen, which is a real possibility given his medical history.
My dad is 62. Personally, I want to dig into the Alzheimer's possibility because he does forget small things here and there. It’s nothing major like the symptoms I’ve read about, thank God, but that night with the hyperglycemia has me deeply unsettled. Could there be a connection? Is it possible this is linked to something deeper, or is it truly just the blood sugar acting up, as the doctors claim?
Can a brain CT scan (computed tomography, with the referral diagnosis being TIA) actually show signs of Alzheimer's disease? Specifically, I'm wondering about damage to the basal ganglia in the brainstem, which I’ve read online is something this disease causes...
The thing is, my father is scheduled for this scan in a few days, and since I won't be there, I won't have the chance to press the doctors for details myself...
And from what I've gathered, during that initial stage of patient assessment, doctors often miss it because everything still looks relatively normal on the surface...
Our family actually insisted on this scan because a month ago, we found him early one morning just tossing things around in a frenzy; once we finally got him to sit down, he knew all his details and ours perfectly well... but it was as if he were in a trance. He is a diabetic, and when we checked him immediately, his blood sugar was at 26. The ER staff told us everything was fine—that he just needed to stay until his levels stabilized using fast-acting insulin—and they maintained the cause was simply the sugar. We believe them, honestly, because he hadn't followed his regimen for two days prior and had recently been refusing his insulin; he's still on pills, though the doctors are pushing for insulin since he's such a high-risk patient with heart issues, diabetes, hypertension, and blood clotting concerns. That morning, until he finally got home and slept it off, he had no memory of the episode, and the explanation provided was hyperglycemia. I've heard that this is quite common for certain high-risk diabetics... so that was the verdict. We're sticking strictly to the rules now and monitoring everything regularly...
I'm terrified, though, because I've heard stories about how this could be a precursor to a stroke. We're acutely aware of that risk, especially if he doesn't stick to his regimen, which is a real possibility given his medical history.
My dad is 62. Personally, I want to dig into the Alzheimer's possibility because he does forget small things here and there. It’s nothing major like the symptoms I’ve read about, thank God, but that night with the hyperglycemia has me deeply unsettled. Could there be a connection? Is it possible this is linked to something deeper, or is it truly just the blood sugar acting up, as the doctors claim?