It was the Jelly Beans!

Photo from Wikipedia.com

Dear Readers,

It's a purrfect (as Mario would say) day in Wisconsin - light breeze, temperature predicted to be 75 today, and humidity is low.  It doesn't get any better than this friends.  I know, I know, I know - many of my readers live in warm climates and this would feel like winter to them, but I'm loving it.

There is good news to report today.   A week or so ago I had a follow-up appointment with the psychologist to see if I was declining in mental ability or had improved.   For a change I remembered to ask him to send me a copy of his report to my neurologist and one for my records too.  

I do have to say I was in TOP FORM that day - felt good physically and mentally sharp.   Got to the psychologists office, met with his assistant (who is the one to do the testing) and promptly said to her "I don't know what's going on here, but I really feel mentally with it today."   And I did too,   

She started administering the Weschler Intelligence Scale - Adult version to me (those sections that I had done so very poorly on the very first time she tested me and also had trouble with the second time she tested me). 

The end result is that I've improved in some areas of mental functioning ("notable gains in memory, (both for verbal and visual information) Language was clear, Verbal Reasoning was Solid,, but viseospatial functioning looked slightly improved. in certain dimensions.     He did tell my neurologist that due to my family history, they should still keep an eye on my overall cognitive functioning especially with the Parkinson's.   

Now I still have some long-term memory issues and some short-term issues also. But I guess I'm at what I'd refer to as the normal (for my age) range and I can't ask for more than that.   How long it will last, no one knows, but I'll take it when I can get it.  I just feel like I've gained back the ground that I've lost over the past 9 months.   And, there was decline over those months.   Might have been drugs - who knows,

I have to tell you that I feel like a little kid who finally got an A in one of his classes after flunking last semester!!   I do feel more mentally alert these days and generally more "with it."   I really think it was the Jelly Beans I ate before reaching his office.  (shh, don't tell anyone that - he he).   I hardly ever eat Jelly beans because they are all sugar.  But the day before I picked up a bag of Jelly Belly's when I spied them at the store.,   I was running late the morning of the testing, so didn't eat a proper lunch - grabbed a hand  full of Jelly Beans and ran out the door.   I'm sure IT'S THE JELLY BEANS!   haha!

I researched on the Internet some picture samples of some of the tests.  This is not giving away any secrets nor is there anyway to practice because you  don't have the answers.  Just thought you might find this interesting.   This is just a tiny sampling of SOME of the things on the test and these same samples did not appear on the test I took - just similar things.   

Tester presented pictures of puzzle, and I was told to copy with the actual tiles.  This is a timed test, starting easy, and ending hard if, it is something that doesn't come easy for you.

Fill in the blank space.   I didn't have to do this one, but had something similar.   I could not have done this one and would have left it undone.  I just simply don't get it.

Now on this one on the left, I think I  know the answer, but I'm not sure.  i'm guessing it's #5, but I don't know if I'm right or not.


In addition to visual puzzles, she read a list of about 40 words and I had to repeat as many as I could.   That was hard even tho she read them slowly and did it twice.


Then there was a language test where she about  read about 20  words in pairs and wanted to know how they were related or alike.   This was very hard because in some cases i didn't think they were related - opposites instead.






In another test she read a story with math problems that I had to do in my head -no paper allowed.   Now if you happen to like math and are good with it, this test would have been easy peasy.  But.....  I hated math.  I do remember the times table and can certainly add, subtract and divide.   I can't solve those problems in my head tho when they are presented in story form and you have to add, subtract, and multiply in your head while retaining the information.  it's too much for this old brain.   


All in all, I was happy with the results.  I still say I did well because of the magical jelly beans.  You know - if you were not a genius in school, you aren't going to  be a genius as an old lady!  he he  



Until next time......




Mary


All pictures copied from Internet Explorer's "Images" file and labeled to be  from the Weschler Intelligence Scale   -  Adult.  I have no idea exactly what year.