Dementia and the General Election 2010 - Two

It is short term memory loss that is the bummer. Earlier, this morning, afternoon, evening, yesterday, the day before are concepts of time I struggle with. If someone tells me a list of facts, I lose facts one and two. A constant diary and a smart phone help enormously. I have a mind map of sites, mostly numbered and colour coded that acts as surrogate short and medium term memory aids. So far long term memory - last year plus is okay.

The strangest feature of it all is living in a perpetual present. A magical realm where the tradition of the new is constantly renewed. Yet still I can go half a dozen times into the kitchen before I remember to make that cup of tea or coffee.

There is no medication to help and I am not too far gone to merit diagnosis and treatment - what little there is available. The one thing that helps enormously is venesection, removal of a pint or litre of blood. That gives me a month of increased lucidity.

Yet I have that for another medical condition and it is not recognised for dementia treatment.

So I get it once or twice a year rather than the 6 or 8 times that would benefit me.

Research into dementia is a Cinderella service, the Ugly sisters of Cancer and Heart Disease get the vast bulk of research funding. Treatment is primarily for when the condition has deteriorated dramatically.

I get tea and sympathy and encouragement to do word games. Once I could do the Times or Telegraph cryptic crosswords in under an hour, today I struggle to get half a dozen clues a day.

The government needs for the NHS and University Research Institutes to develop medication and other treatments for those in the earliest stages of dementia.

It will come to late for me, the funding isn't there, but more monies are needed to help a rapidly aging society. That requires a political commitment.