More on the verdict

 I was thinking about what the psychologist said on the phone re the tests.  It's all very clever how they work things out, the groups of various oral and written tests are all designed specifically to check out different aspects of specific conditions.  E.g., some initial ones were to provide a baseline IQ result given husband's age and education.  He had ones for visual awareness and concentration (for driving skills), ones for dementia, some for cognitive impairment, finishing up with some designed to test anxiety and depression levels.  We didn't know which tests were for what function at the time, she explained all about them in her phone call on Thursday, I can't remember them all, it was a lot to take in.  Then all the results had to be collated and the scores added up, and taken in conjunction with the full results of the brain scan to come up with a diagnosis.  

She said that husband scored, I think it was 86 out of 100, for one test - I can't remember what but that was a very good result for his age apparently.  However, he only scored 9 out of 20 for another thing, so that one wasn't very good.  The anxiety and depression tests were marked out of 10, with 10 being very high levels - he scored 8/10 for anxiety and a whopping 9/10 for depression at the time of the tests.  However, as I said yesterday, he was clearly very relieved about the not-dementia and yes to driving results, which alleviated his anxiety and elevated his mood straight away, he's much more his normal self today (so just totally forgetful but reasonably happy!).  I would say his anxiety and depression scores are now about 3 or 4 - not that I'm in any way an expert, but having suffered (and continuing to) with anxiety and depression myself for many many years, and having lived with husband for over 40 years, I do know him.

(As an aside, I would say my anxiety level currently is probably about 17 out of 10 down from about 23 over the past few months, and my depression around 10/10 😂😔.  I'm making light of it but the reality is it's not funny).

The brunch was quite nice, husband enjoyed it more than me but then he is a fan of big cooked breakfasts whereas I'm not really.  But it was his choice and he was paying!  I left some of mine but quite enjoyed what I did eat.  The coffee wasn't brilliant though.  It was nice to be out for a meal, however, seeing as it's not something we do often.

We've got a few appointments over the next couple of weeks, but will try to fit in a caravan day, preferably on a good weather day.  The weather forecast is very mixed for a fortnight or so, getting washing dry outside could be a bit hit and miss.

We're off to a farmers market this morning, hoping to stock up on some fresh meat for husband, there's also a cheese stall for me, and a pet stall for some treats for Betty.

My back is still very painful and I'm finding it hard to walk.  I am taking regular doses of paracetamol, with added codeine and amitriptyline before I go to bed.....these last two have helped me sleep a bit better the past 2 nights, but do leave me feeling totally brain fogged the next morning.  Rambler, you suggested physio - that's a complete joke here, even getting to see one is a battle, and then they are so disorganised they change appointments all the time (without telling me on 2 occasions!).  Plus, having only managed to see one twice, for just 10 mins each time, all they do is give me a couple of exercises and say see how that goes for a month.  Waste of time, I cancelled the remaining appointments and shan't bother with them again.  My back will get better in due course, it's not like I haven't had it before.

Thank you all for your comments....I'm keen to see the official written report by the psychologist to see what her recommendations are.  Although it's brilliant that husband doesn't have dementia, he does have these other things going on so is not problem free.  And the basic bottom line is that our situation remains pretty much the same.