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.Inone episode, she describes an attempt to drive home from a brief errand.Suddenly, I was aware of car horns blowing.Glancing around, nothing wasfamiliar.I was stopped at an intersection and the traffic light was green.Carshonked impatiently, so I pulled straight ahead, trying to get my bearings.I could notread the street sign, but there was another sign ahead; perhaps it would shed somelight on my location.A few yards ahead, there was a park ranger building.Trembling, I wiped my eyes, and breathing deeply, tried to calm myself.Finally,feeling ready to speak, I started the car again and approached the ranger station.The guard smiled and inquired how he could assist me. I appear to be lost, Ibegan, making a great effort to keep my voice level, despite my emotional state. Where do you need to go? the guard asked politely.A cold chill enveloped me asI realized I could not remember the name of my street.Tears began to flow down mycheeks.I did not know where I wanted to go.(pp.7 8)Diana s difficulties continued.She sometimes forgot the names of her childrenand once astounded her nephew when she didn t recognize him.If she left home,she almost invariably got lost.She learned to introduce herself as a tourist from outof town, because people would give her better directions.She felt as if there wasless of me every day than there was the day before. Durand 13-78During initial medical examinations, Diana didn t recall this type of problem inher family history.However, a look through some of her late mother s belongingsrevealed that she was not the first to experience symptoms of dementia.Then I noticed the maps.After mother s death I had found mysterious handdrawn maps and bits of directions scribbled on note papers all over her home.Theywere in her purses, in bureau drawers, in the desks, seemingly everywhere.Toodistraught at the time to figure out their purpose, I simply packed them all awaywith other articles in the box.Now I smoothed out each map and scrawled note, andplaced them side by side.They covered the bedroom floor.There were maps toevery place my mother went about town, even to my home and my brother s home.As I deciphered each note and map, I began recollecting my mother s othereccentric habits.She would not drive out of her neighborhood.She would not driveat night.She was teased by both myself and my brother about memory goofs andwould become irate with both of her children over their loving teasing.Then with a chill, I recalled one day when I approached my mother to tell hersomething, and she did not recognize me.(p.52)After several evaluations, which included an MRI showing some damage inseveral parts of her brain, Diana s neurologist concluded that she had dementia.Thecause could be a stroke she had several years before that damaged several smallareas of her brain by breaking or blocking several blood vessels.The dementiacould also indicate Alzheimer s disease.People at the same stage of decline asDiana Friel McGowin will continue to deteriorate and eventually may die fromcomplications of their disorder.Clinical Description and Statistics Durand 13-79Depending on the individual and the cause of the disorder, the gradual progression ofdementia may have somewhat different symptoms, although all aspects of cognitivefunctioning are eventually affected.In the initial stages, memory impairment istypically seen as an inability to register ongoing events.In other words, a person canremember how to talk, and may remember events from many years ago, but can havetrouble remembering what happened in the past hour.For example, Diana still knewhow to use the stove but couldn t remember whether she had turned it on or off.Diana couldn t find her way home because visuospatial skills are impaired amongpeople with dementia.Agnosia, the inability to recognize and name objects, is one ofthe most familiar symptoms.Facial agnosia, the inability to recognize even familiarfaces, can be extremely distressing to family members.Diana failed to recognize notonly her nephew but also co-workers whom she had seen daily for years.A generaldeterioration of intellectual function results from impairment in memory, planning,and abstract reasoning
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