Bill & Marisol Deutsch

Staten Island, NY

Bill: I was working as a physician and I started having difficulty remembering patients' names, medications and things that I would not have had a problem with ever in the 26 years I was working. And I started to also lose my concentration - I would walk into a room and forget why I went in there at work and I, so I started to, I, I went to a few doctors to try and find out what was going on because this was not normal for me.

Marisol: When he came home he would tell me about the things that he was forgetting at work and, he was going to a doctor for another reason, so he brought it up to his doctor and he said, "Well, let's get this checked." And, 'cause he was on a different medication so he thought that it was the medicine. So, they tested him and, the results came back that he had early onset ... I'm sorry.... Alzheimer's.

Bill: Uh, my uh, I, I had an, I had had a, a, an MRI for ... to rule out that I had had a stroke. And I was seeing a neurologist who specialized in memory disorders and he, uh, tested me and then recommended I have a PET scan. And the, uh the results of the PET scan showed that I had, changes in my brain which correlated with his findings and said that what I, what, what I have is, an early onset type of ... an early onset ... it's a cognitive, impairment. And, he explained to me that there was a possibility that it might lead to, uh, you know, Alzheimer's disease sometime in the future. So, and he put me on medication.

Marisol: Basically I'm the caregiver. I take care of everything. I do the errands, the paying of the bills, scheduling of appointments. Everything ... I have to deal with everything, uh, that deals with life, and it's hard. He's not the same person I used to know. He's not as outgoing and, he's just basically not the same. And, uh, it's just difficult.

Bill: What makes it uh, hard for Marisol is that, uh, she's not feeling well herself. And so, you know, it's a question of, you know, having to take care of herself and as well as, as me. I don't have problems grooming myself or things like that, but when it comes time for making my appointments, I, I, had had a shoulder problem and I had surgery uh, a few months ago, and I was going for physical therapy and I was in terrible pain before I had the surgery so it was between taking care of all that, going to different doctors, physical therapy, making sure I, I have a problem with the medication that I take it, I took it, I'm not sure I took it, did I ... you know, so I try to make myself, make it easier for myself and you know, by marking things down but sometimes I forget so I'm asking, "Did I take my medication?" and ... cause I would just not remember and then, and so she has to take care to make sure I took my medication and she took her medication.

So, it's you know, and I get frustrated and she gets frustrated and sometimes the two of us you know, we get excited then we calm down it but it, it's, you know. But she's been very supportive and understanding because when we got married I'm sure this was not something she was ... I mean, she ... I did not know I had anything like this when we got married. And, and so she had no way of knowing. And I'm sure that this was as much as a surprise to her as it was to me.

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