Doctors

I’m in a doctor office waiting room. Again. This time is kind of sobering.

It is a set of opposites, with many similarities when I compare yesterday and today.  Yesterday was with my daughter when she was getting a followup examination for a recently received concussion. Today my 96 year old mom is having mobility and memory tests as part of a long term Alzheimer’s disease study.

Mom doesn’t appear to have Alzheimer’s disease. Apparently the only way to know for certain is to look at the brain during an autopsy and by then it’s too late to be very helpful. The study follows people for decades, performing measurements and all sorts of tests, even after death, to see if a way can be found to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms even begin to be noticed.

The differences are obvious; old, young and will get better, won’t get better. (Mom’s memory is OK for a 96 year old.)

The similarities are more subtle.  In one word it’s expectations. The expectation that our daughter will be normal in a few days matches the expectations that the folks in this research study will succeed.