Second Opinion

National Hospital for Neuroscience and Neurosurgery 

Monday - To the National Hospital for Neuroscience and Neurosurgery for a second opinion on my condition. 

The journey in was strange. I haven't commuted in to central London for years, so I wasn't looking forward to the crush of commuters. The legacy of lockdown is that people are working from home, and we got seats on the train to Waterloo and the Underground. Really weird, for someone like me who took the tube for decades to see the change.

When we arrived we were seen immediately and went into an office with 2 neurosurgeons and Speech and Language Therapist god, Anna Volkmer. We were later joined by Professor Walker himself who asked very specific questions and suggested to us that he thinks something else is going on with me. Not just FTDsv and FTDbv but something else.

I did a load of memory tests recalling numbers and pictures, physical tests with one of those hammers to test reactions and also tests to determine my coordination. At one stage there was a huge amount of talking in the corridor which made me unable to concentrate on a visual test and I shouted "Can someone make the noise stop?" Christ.

As J said, it was good they saw that, as I flew through many of the tests with flying colours.

I then had more extensive testing by a neuropsychologist for a further 90 minutes. Very tired by the end.

I'm having an MRI scan soon and a lumbar puncture to ascertain what other stuff is going on. J reckons it could be Lewy Body Dementia but it will all be revealed in due course.

Step this way sir...

It was a bit of a pisser to hear this - that there is another dementia prevalent. But after 15 minutes I was fine with it, having stoically absorbed it.

It's the others closest to you who suffer more with the anxiety of it all.