Already her white blood count was 18,000 and her abdomen was hot and tender. As he finished the 5-minute antibacterial scrub and held his arms upright, he suddenly felt slightly lost in the operating room that had been his sanctuary for the past 25 years. What was wrong with his head? He couldn’t remember his young patient’s name. He had just reassured her a few moments before! But he recognised the abdominal surgical set-up, so he stood still as the circulating nurse slipped on his gloves and tied the surgical mask strings behind his ears.
Seemingly on autopilot, Charles took the scalpel handed to him by the surgical nurse, and within minutes had removed the ready-to-burst gland. In an unusual fashion, he asked the intern to close and walked out of the operating room.
Dr. Charles Mayo knew this would be his last surgery. Something was not right, but he couldn’t place what was wrong. As he passed the OR scheduling secretary, he told her to cancel all his scheduled surgeries and appointments.
Rushing past the anxious parents in the waiting room, he reached for his cell phone but then dropped it back into his pocket when he realized he couldn’t recall a single phone number. He rushed out into the cold November wind and started walking. He didn’t remember how he got to the hospital or how to contact his wife for help! Maybe the cold wind would wake up his mind.
Back at St. Mary's Hospital, Edith knew that her husband should be out of surgery by now. She had seen the young girl being transported to the med floor and figured Charles might be ready for a quick snack in the hospital cafeteria. Slipping to the operating room information desk, she asked if Charles had come out.
“Sure Edith. He went toward the ER about 20 minutes ago. Didn’t he call you? He told me to cancel all his appointments. Is he alright?”
Her eyes wide with surprise, Edith answered calmly, "Maybe there’s another emergency coming in. I’ll go down to the ER and see what’s going on.”
By now, Edith heard the alarms in her head. It wasn’t like Charles not to call and check in with her after surgery. Especially when he knew she was waiting for him.
St. Mary's Hospital was like their second home. They had met and fallen in love right there in that hospital more than 30 years ago when she was a new RN and he was a young handsome dashing intern who had followed in the footsteps of his own father as a innovative pioneering physician. Later, two of their four children had followed their parents into the medical field. Their youngest daughter, Dorothy, was a medical doctor in family practice and their son, Charles, Jr. was a Psychiatrist.
“Hi John, have you seen Charles?”
“Oh hey Edith. Now that I think of it, I saw him leave about 15 minutes ago. I thought you were waiting for him out front. What are you doing in here?”
By now warning bells pounded in her head and her heart raced with fear. She knew that this was just about the last straw. Something had to be done about Charles before the entire hospital knew he was suffering from Alzheimer’s, and before Charles did something terribly wrong to one of his patients.
She walked out into the night and stuffed her fist into her mouth to stifle a scream.
There were too many “lost moments’ with her usual easy-going loving husband. Sometimes he left the car keys in the ignition and didn’t understand why the auto lock wouldn’t work. Once he called her Dorothy during an intimate moment and didn’t seem to notice. Several times he had cried out in alarm when he couldn’t remember how to work the microwave or remote.
Edith remembered the day they had sat on the wrong side of the physician's desk and listened to the reports of the CAT scan and blood work early last year. Charles had known something was wrong when he started forgetting where he put things that he had put in the same place for years or passwords he had used hundreds of times.
“Everything looks fine. You have nothing to worry about. It’s just stress. Why don’t you and Edith take that long overdue vacation?” But Charles knew this was not good news.
He and Edith held hands in silent grief on the way home. They both knew that things were not ‘fine’.
Driving to the hill overlooking the city they loved so well, they stopped the car and walked to the large oddly shaped stone that reminded them of two doves. It was here that Charles had asked Edith to marry him and had promised to love her ‘til death do us part’.
They were open and honest with each other as they discussed what was to be. If the dementia did not resolve, they must plan for a very bleak future. One that neither of them wanted to fathom, but they knew they must plan for a medical ‘retirement’ very soon.
Both medical professionals, Charles and Edith knew what lay ahead. While no two people experience the same signs and symptoms of dementia, Charles had seen and felt the subtle changes in his mind and body. The short-term memory loss was at first blamed on stress, but he knew that he had trouble following conversations he had once enjoyed with a flourish. Surgical instruments, some of which he had developed himself, seemed strange in his hands. He found himself lost in the city that had been his home all his life! He was panic-stricken at the thought of what this mind devastating disease could cost his family!
He had told no one of his fears at first, but he had started taking memory-jogging medications and vitamins. Aricept and Reminyl made no difference in the fog of his mind. Vitamin E and Ginkgo Biloba gave him some renewed energy, but the same cloud sat in his mind day after day. He added some new cholesterol lowering drugs, 50 mg. of Coenzyme Q10 and large doses of Coral Calcium. He even tried the controversial Huperzine A, but nothing helped.
Then he had done the tests to rule out infection, vitamin deficiencies, depression and even a brain tumor. Now he knew the ravages of dementia would slowly and insidiously get worse. He might become suspicious and irritable with Edith and others. He would forget how to properly dress and he would show less and less emotion - or he might go off in terrible tirades of anger and perhaps have delusions and hallucinations where he would hear things, see figures in the room, hear voices and react to the threat of danger. He might even strike out at his long-suffering sweet wife or caregivers who would be needed to care for him.
Now as he raced through the cold windy city streets, he felt lost and afraid. Something propelled him around corners and further away from city lights and open doorways. He must escape this awful fear of isolation and threat of danger. Danger! Danger! Danger!
Edith ran out into the hospital parking lot screaming her husband's name. "Charles! Charles. It's me. Wait for me!"
For a brief moment of relief, she saw Charles' car in his assigned parking space. But there were no footprints in the light dusting of snow. She turned away with heavy heart to the street and scanned the empty sidewalks. Pulling her light lab coat tighter, she opened her cell phone and dialed 911.
It was also time to call, The Laughing Place.
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