Posted 10/22/21
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22
Howdy friends! Sorry I missed our normal Wednesday meeting at the table. As I had mentioned before, I was in St. Louis participating in a study with Washington University’s KNIGHT ALZHEIMER DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER. This round involved 2 parts: Psychometric testing and a lumbar puncture to extract CSF ( Cerebrospinal fluid).
A few thoughts:
- The staff was incredible. They are organized and did everything they could to make it easy and pain-free.
- The psychometric testing was challenging. It was basically a memory recall stress test. The staff member did a wonderful job and was tolerant of me apologizing when I would forget something…a habit, I suppose. However, there is nobody on God’s green Earth that could dominate this test. I did pretty well, all things considered.
- The lumbar puncture marketing department really needs to a rebrand. Lumbar PUNCTURE?!?! Dang…shounds violent! The only things I can think of that get punctured are lungs and tires, both of which are bad. Maybe rename it “CSF donation?” It wasn’t bad at all. Cleaning and measuring around to find a good spot, a quick poke, then wait for a bit. I had one small moment of pain in my leg, for all I know that could have been either psychosomatic or just an aging pain, and it was done. I have had a small headache today, but nothing bad… Not a big whoop. In the end, they had a cool vail of clear fluid that was formerly spread throughout my spine to my brain. Nifty!
- I asked one of the amazing staff how close we are to some big discoveries in the neuroscience world, like fixing broken spines and the like…. He said, as I have heard many times, that training neurons is the tricky part. We can produce them (artificially) through a few means, but getting them to obey their task at hand is the golden goose of the field. Kind of, in a roundabout way, reminds me of parenting, but I digress.
- Next up are the imaging visits in November…PET and MRI. These two inventions are the biggest thing to brain science in human history. Finally we can see the brain and watch it do its thing a little. Very exciting. 🙂
- Great experience that I will happily do again. 🙂 We need better treatments and a cure. Toot sweet. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. 🙂
Thank you all for all you are doing! This is Walk to End Alzheimer’s season if you will, and the Rolla and St. Louis events are this weekend. Keep walking, keep donating, keep serving, keep praying. 🙂 We will #EndALZ sooner than later!
Update: Nothing much new…it was too cold for our usual visits. We are hoping to switch back to indoor visits next week. Mom’s chest rattle was gone Thursday again. That will be an on-again, off-again thing from now on because of her challenges eating/swallowing. I hate this for her and for your loved ones too.
Wanna join me? Here are a couple of links:
