PENN LIVE – Fans are sending prayers to “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, and his family, after it was announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
That’s not the only hurdle the 78-year-old is facing, according to his son Jase Robertson.
“We were trying to figure out the diagnosis, but according to the doctors, he has some sort of blood disease causing all kinds of problems,” Jase said on the ‘Unashamed with the Robertson Family’ podcast.
“We’ve got a team of doctors, and then we have another set of doctors who are looking at all the tests, and they’re all in agreement that there’s no curing what he has” …
As a doctor, here’s what I have learned from my own Alzheimer’s disease
I suddenly wore two hats — that of a retired physician who had cared for people with Alzheimer’s disease and now a person living with the same disorder.
Guest column by Daniel Gibbs | The Washington Post – December 7, 2024
I have a special interest in Alzheimer’s disease.
For nearly 25 years, I practiced general neurology in Portland, Oregon, and some of my patients had dementia.
In 2012, while doing a genealogical DNA search, I inadvertently discovered that I have two copies of the APOE-4 allele, meaning I had a very good chance of getting Alzheimer’s-caused dementia by age 80. I felt gobsmacked.
I remember walking down the stairs in a daze after reading the report from the genetic testing service and telling my wife, Lois, “I think I am screwed.”
A year later, I retired at age 62 even though I had no symptoms of cognitive impairment.
If I had almost any other job, I could have continued working for a few more years, but in medicine, forgetfulness could have fatal consequences.
I suddenly wore two hats — that of a retired physician who had cared for a lot of people with Alzheimer’s disease and now a person living with the same disorder.
I had been taught, in medical school in the 1970s and even during my neurology residency in the 1980s, that Alzheimer’s disease progresses from onset to death in about three to five years, and nothing can be done about it. Neither statement is true.
In hindsight, my first symptom of Alzheimer’s disease was a gradual loss of smell that I first noticed in 2006. This was accompanied by odd olfactory hallucinations that smelled like baking bread mixed with perfume.
I didn’t have any measurable cognitive impairment until 2015, when I had significant trouble remembering words, including the names of friends and colleagues.
I had a PET scan as part of a research study, which showed my brain had the beginning of abnormal tau protein, a key part of diagnosing Alzheimer’s. When the scans were repeated in 2018 and 2022, the tau protein can be seen spreading through my brain …
