An Australian man who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 41 has now been told he doesn't have the disease after new test results confirmed it.
Fraser was diagnosed with the progressive disease decades before the age people most commonly get it and had been explaining things in a series of videos to help educate people about what was happening to him.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, he said he'd 'put everything down to being stressed', but when he felt his stress and anxiety had gone, his memory problems remained, and he thought there might be something else going on.
His children noticed he was forgetting things more often, such as the time when he panicked that his daughter wasn't answering her phone, but he'd forgotten she'd gone to the cinema, or when he completely forgot a film he'd seen with his partner.
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The man also struggled to remember the names of things, as he lamented that his cognitive decline was happening 'more than he thought'.
However, in a new update, Fraser has said he went to an appointment with the people who'd diagnosed him. They went through the results of tests he'd been given and they said there had been a 'bit of a decline in my cognition in some areas', but it wasn't as much as you'd expect for someone with Alzheimer's.
They referred him to another team, which had Fraser going through 'a more thorough assessment' to work out whether he had dementia, and if not, then what the reason for his symptoms were.
He went through a series of tests, more scans, a lumbar puncture, and blood work.
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"The moment when I realized that I didn't have dementia was I'd done a little cognitive test without looking at language and the neuropsychologist said 'there's no way somebody with your PET scan results could do what you just done'," Fraser explained.
"You know, 'you performed within normal range, you're fine with that', that made me feel comforted, felt good, but it wasn't until the next day when a psychiatrist came in and had a chat to me. At the end of the conversation, I asked, 'Do you know if they've got the the MRI and the PET scan results back yet?' And he goes, 'I'll go off and have a look'."
When the psychiatrist returned, Fraser asked him how the results had come out and was told 'they were all clear'.
"So it was at that moment when I realized I don't have dementia. I took a picture of out the window because I spent the next, I don't know it felt like two hours, maybe like an hour or maybe half an hour then just crying in relief," Fraser said.
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He explained that his previous diagnosis of Alzheimer's had turned out to be incorrect, and he's since been diagnosed with anxiety, saying 'the way they explained it is an anxious brain has problems filing memories'.
"Information comes in, it doesn't get stored in a logical way. Then when it comes time to retrieve that information, I can't access it," the Australian man explained.
"And so that's why I get issues of, you know, forgetting things, forgetting I left the stove on, forgetting where my kids are, forgetting words when I when I'm struggling speaking."
He made the emotional confession that he didn't know what he was going to say to friends he'd made through a support ground after he'd been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, musing 'it's f**ked, isn't it', and he said he'd changed the names of all his YouTube videos to reflect his new diagnosis.
If you've been affected by dementia or Alzheimer's and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact the Alzheimer’s Society via 0333 150 3456 or visit their website for more information.
Topics: Australia, Health, Mental Health, YouTube
Joe Harker