A year is too long

This popped up on my Facebook memory page today - this was taken 7th June 2013 - mum had been signed off work for 6 months, we would try spend every day off with mum as it was a scary time for her. This specific day was spent at the beach with my brother and his girlfriend, I can remember it so well.

Mum's work had raised the possibility of mum having early onset dementia - we had been burying our heads and as soon as mum's work had been in touch we knew we had to face the truth. Afterall they were experts in this fields - caring for those with Dementia.

We were being sent to numerous doctors appointments and felt no-one would listen. We kept hearing the same response 'your mum is too young for dementia' 'it must be stress'. Mum would be given a few 'memory tests' to see how she would get on. No-one would take our opinion as a family as we knew her better than the doctor and knew mum had been actiung differently recently - but that didn't seem to matter - it was still stress.

It wasnt untill December that year mum was finally sent for a brain scan where it was confirmed she had shrinking of brain even then it took numerous phone calls from us as a family to chase up these results.

I think we got the official diagnosis early 2014 - ONE YEAR, ONE YEAR it took for mum to be given her diagnosis. How is that allowed to happen?

Imagine knowing there was something not quite right with yourself, but no-one was really jumping out to help you figure it out.

Imagine being scared wondering what your future will hold and it taking a year to get answers.

Imagine asking for help and being ignored from professionals who wont listen to you or your family -because apparently you are too young...

That's one whole year robbed from mum and us a family, one whole year we may have been on top of things - Power of attorney, going away for holidays, making more memories, asking mum what she wants for her future. Because believe it or not in the world of Dementia a year is a short time.

One thing I want to come from this and the reason behind But Alzheimer's Is For Old People is that we start to recognise that a Dementia diagnosis under the age of 65 is real and possible. Too many people are being discriminated against just because of their age. I can't imagine waiting a year for a diagnosis for many other illnesses, so why this?