I'm wondering if there's some sort of medical test that can be done to determine hardening of the cerebral arteries; it's probably on the internet somewhere, but I'd just as soon hear from members, some of whom are at that age where they have to deal with this issue, usually in regards to their elderly parents.
This is not a request for medical advice, especially since I'm gong to be seeing a physician about it right after Thanksgiving anyway, but at the moment I'm grasping for insight.
For the past several months, many people who know me in real life insist that I am "missing" more and more things; that there seems to be some "blank spots" in my "awareness."
At first, I brushed this off. I'm deaf; it's a "given" that I'm going to "miss" things.
This issue was first brought up in April, when I "missed" something ordered by a physician, the result being that what could have been a mere $2,000 medical bill turned out to be more than $9,000.
After other such incidences, and a long introspective, I've concluded that possibly such critics of myself are right, and something needs checked out. Upon closer examination, and thought about, certain things, some of this can not be ascribed to simple deafness; I seem to be "missing" things for a reason unrelated to that I don't hear them.
First, a broad and general overview of my current situation; I have to be as vague as possible, because this is the internet, and primitives might catch this, and read it. Single male, born somewhere halfway between the CalPig primitive (1942) and the Bostonian Drunkard (1971). Tall, light build, physically stronger and more agile than most people. Graduate of the University of Nebraska. Came from a good (and large) family, born at the tail end of it when the parents were already well into middle-age, and am the last-surviving of them. Have six nephews, three of them married with children, and the youngest one still in college. Our relations are warm, but not close.
The parents, brothers, and sisters all died in middle age (my mother, for example, at the age of 56), excepting my younger brother, two years younger than myself, who died at 17 years from an automobile accident. All the others died of natural causes due to the afflictions and ailments of affluence; the too-easy life.
A cup that has been passed from these lips; I have yet to display any symptoms of those things that brought about their own demises. All my adult life, the blood pressure has ranged 110-100/65-55, the blood sugar 108-112, the cholesterol I never remember, other than that I am told "it's very low, don't worry about it" (the number's told me, but I forget to remember it), and no problems with weight.
Heavy drinker between the ages of 17 and 23; while in college and shortly thereafter imbibed somewhat in marijuana and dabbled oh-so-lightly in "hash," but nothing coming even remotely close to the degree in which my peers were involved. I just didn't care much for it.
No problems with any of the vital organs, never even a backache.
No pharmaceutical drugs (see below, however).
The only significant hospitalizations have been for physical injuries (also twice for pneumonia); it's possible I've broken every bone in this body at least once, but that's a hazard of being deaf. One isn't clumsy or inept or accident-prone or anything like that; it's just that one is unaware of perils of which hearing people are very aware.
In August-September 2009--more than a year ago--for about 60 days was taking 2.5 mg Amlodipine once a day; they had been prescribed after the ulcer in the throat broke open. I said I didn't need it, but deferred to medical opinion. When it was time to renew it, my regular physician asked, "why are you taking this?" and it was dropped. In my whole entire life, other than that one incident, the only other prescription drug I've ever taken was real penicillin (not the chemical antibiotics; the real stuff).....but alas that, probably somewhat more than "normal," like six times every five or so years.
As some here know, I am very well-acquainted with my own family history, going back six generations; the English, Scots, and Welsh from the side of my father, the Brandenburgian and Slovakian-Hebraic from my mother. I am awash in all sorts of information about these long-ago people (who after all were very interesting), and of course know what their general condition in life had been, and the causes of their demises.
(The most obvious lesson from them all that is the harder the lives they had, the longer they lived.)
Although I inherited the superficial physical characteristics of my father's Welsh ancestors, it's been sort of evident at times that I inherited the genetics of my mother's Slovakian-Hebraic ancestors, their major problem with health in their lives being.....living a very long life, but lapsing into utter senility towards the end of middle age.
Not Alzeimer's or something like that; just plain old-fashioned senescence.
Beginning in childhood, I watched as step-by-step, these most interesting people with distinctively-leonine features slowly faded into a world that only they knew. This was easy to observe, because most of the family were medical professionals, and as the old ones deteriorated, they were still kept at home, and cared for there.
And so I'm wondering, and hoping to find out after Thanksgiving.
Such comments made the past six months about my "missing" things have not been maliciously-meant or unkind, usually being padded with additions such as, "well, you've always lived such a rough-and-tumble life," or "well, it's obvious you're highly stressed," or "well, smoking like a chimney might have something to do with it."
I am wondering about the last, the smoking part. As mentioned earlier, I seem to have been spared the afflictions--after all, medical science is not perfect, and while it can determine something generally, it's impossible to determine all specific things--that arise from that. I do indeed smoke like a chimney, compulsively, obsessively, always smoking, a cigarette dangling from my lips even when working.
That, I suppose, is an informal "tranquilizer;" without it, I would probably be chewing on the ceilings in vexation.
It's never been easy, pretending to be a hearing person. I'm sure I was born with the acting talents of John Barrymore, but it still drains one, wipes one out after even the most innocuous encounter.
At the moment, I'm soliciting comments and insight from those who've had to deal with this issue, usually with their ancient parents; how did one first notice the onset of senility, and how was it treated?
