I thought I'd update this thread to let everyone know how it turned out. Nothing better to do this weekend. And for those who aren't familiar with this thread, it involved my wife being cited for hit and run back in early 2015.
First off, we paid the lawyer to make it all go away. And the person who's car my wife hit was completely unable to drop the charges. Understandable, but mean spirited, I think, due to the circumstances. My wife really did not know she'd hit the persons car.
As it turns out, my wife had, at that time, the early symptoms of Alzheimer's. We did not recognize it at the time but looking back, the signs were there. An inability to read was the first symptom, as I recall. She has greatly deteriorated since that incident.
She continued to drive for awhile after that but one day, she stopped for gas and then changed her mind and as she drove off, cut the island too tight and tore up the right side of the car. It took a few days before she confessed to it and was quite upset. We got that repaired but there were other symptoms so we eventually made an appointment with a neurologist. He gave her the usual tests which showed she was already in the decline. Functional, but that was declining as well. Since he was required by law to notify the DMV, she stopped driving after that and hasn't since.
Some of the other signs were one day, sitting there crying, she had forgotten how to make out a check. Another time she baked potatoes in our convection microwave, not on the convection setting, but a full hour on microwave. I came into a smoke filled kitchen with two tiny charred hulks of potato in the oven. We had to replace the oven.
She is now, by my calculations, in the sixth stage (out of seven) of Alzheimer's. I do everything for her and she is really the reason I stopped riding as well. I cook and feed her, clean the house, dress her, do the laundry, help her clean up after her frequent fecal incontinence episodes, etc. I'll still try to take a walk with her around the neighborhood from time to time, but that's it. Othwise it's hanging out at home. She can't even stand to be without me in the room most of the time. She'll get up after a minute to look for me, crying "help me, help me" or "where are you, where are you". That makes it difficult to do gardening and other outside chores. Fortunately, grocery shopping can be handled online and we signed her up for her SS so that helps.
At first, after being diagnosed with dementia, she would tell everyone about it. Then we got a second opinion at Stanford and after she broke down when the doctor called it Alzheimer's. I've since not used the word Alzheimer's in her presence and I don't think she remembers that day as she's forgotten a lot of things. She can't read and now her speech can be quite garbled as she doesn't know the correct words.
I don't know how much longer she'll live. Perhaps another year or two, I don't know. But I will be there for her and keep her in our home.
So that's the short version. And for those you love, keep an eye out for the symptoms. You can't do anything for the disease, but knowing what's going on can help.
