Everything seemed to have changed in dementia care. It had become a policy priority and public and professional attitudes and understanding were improving, as were services and care. And then COVID-19 happened — a profound shock to the system tha…
Category: Neurology
The truth about Alzheimer’s
Her son went to visit her at her house of 52 years. The sound in the bathroom indicated that the faucet in the tub was running and overflowing onto the floor. A series of events piled one on top of the other. A totaled car, candles burning in the house…
After a stroke, a physician experiences true vulnerability
“I think I’m having a stroke.” The words struggled to leave my mouth as I spoke to the 9-1-1 operator. Emotionally in disbelief, the words seemed so unusual to say in the first person. Ten minutes earlier, overwhelming nausea and drenching sweats woke …
Are we underestimating the danger of prions and prion based diseases?
Assessment without definition: a flat tire on the road of progress Even though we have known about prions for decades, very little progress has been made in defining what a prion is vs. what a prion is not, how they get into the brain, and how prion di…
Is my headache coming from my soul?
Serious soul searching can give anybody a headache, but when a young woman asked me that, I was taken aback in my neurosurgery clinic. Huh? I said. Do you know René Descartes? The pineal gland is the “seat of the soul.” Well, my pineal gland has a cyst…
The R-word takes away people’s humanity
Some of you may have heard it on the playground. Others might have used it in jest. I’m not going to write it. I’m just going to call it the R-word because it’s that disgusting. It’s a slur against people with intellectual disab…
Should playing football require informed consent?
I’m of Irish heritage and we love to tell stories. This story feels like it needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I grew up in Texas, where football is king. Here’s my story so parents can make a more fully “informed consent” when deciding if their ch…
Utilize a baseline test to uncover COVID brain fog
It’s been dubbed “COVID brain fog,” the neurological symptoms suffered by an estimated 80 percent of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19. These are early dementia-like neurological problems that patients face even after recovering from COVID-19, …
A caretaker’s bedtime ritual
I had planned to take care of my dad at the end of his life. In 2009, Dad retired at 75 because of Parkinson’s disease. Over the next couple of years, he lived in his own home. My younger brother Mark, who lived nearby, faced the first difficult …
Traumatic brain injury, race, and economics: the unpleasant reality
I have observed with impunity, a silent form of racism that exists in our society and in just about every American health care delivery system against people of color. If you are on Medicaid, without health care coverage, or have a low cost/low premium…
