27 April 2023
Joyce had her annual wellness visit today with Dr. Ana Brenman. She hadn't seen her in person since the pandemic, just keeping up blood tests through that period. So there was a lot of ground to cover.
Joyce and I brought up two and Dr. Brenman had one of her own.
When I mentioned she was having memory issues, Dr. Brenman gave Joyce a couple of memory tests not unlike the ones Jessica the RN gave her at St. Francis. She told her three words she would ask her to remember later. Then she asked Joyce to drew a clock face, which she did correctly, and to set the hands to a certain time, which she also did correctly. But she couldn't remember any of the three words.
Joyce said she has been having trouble remembering things short term, resorting to notes to remind herself. So Dr. Brenman suggested an evaluation by the memory clinic. They require some blood tests (which she did today) and a brain scan Joyce will do next month.
The last issue was her sleep problem, which may be apnea. The sleep clinic will loan her a machine to take home for a night to see what's going on. She may need a CPAP machine to force oxygen into her airways at night.
Oxygen deprivation can starve vital organs, Dr. Brenman said. including the brain, making memory issues worse.
Finally, Dr. Brenman brought up the spot in her spinal cord that was evaluated for surgery before the pandemic. The surgeon had suggested just keeping an eye on it and since it didn't grow, he didn't feel it needed surgical intervention.
But it's been a few years, so Dr. Brenman thought it prudent to have another CT scan, one with dye and one without. If it's unchanged we can all stop thinking about it.
So Joyce will have a busy May, including a visit with Dr. Tong (that's already been rescheduled once).