driving to ...

... Decatur today, to  keep an appointment made a couple of weeks ago. When recently visiting with the cousin who lives there, she pointed out an advertisement printed in the Sunday Atlanta newspaper. Providing contact information about a study that is taking place at Emory University, for people who might be interested in participating in research on dementia. The cousin said she was thinking she would call to get more info., so I got the number and made the contact when I got home.

It was one of those aggravating calls where you think someone is pulling prank on you, with recording directing you through a series of voice mail prompts. Sending you down a profoundly frustrating path that causes you to give up, disconnect with steam coming out of your ears, highly aggravated at the complete lack of results. Undecided about whether another attempt will bring desired results or just another bump up in blood pressure. Looking back, I feel like I went through over a dozen different options, attempting to connect with a real person, who might actually talk to me, instead of the 'if/then' numbers to press for proceeding down the rabbit hole of endless tribulations of plague-ing prompts.

Eventually finding a living breathing human, though not one with any information about the study, I was told someone would call me back. I spoke to a representative the following day, who was able to provide me with answers, and ask enough questions to determine if I would be a good candidate. Which explains why I will steel my nerves and drive to Emory today. There are a number of preliminary things to be done, testing and evaluations to decide about my suitability for being a participant. The only thing that makes me anxious thus far is the prospect of having to get an MRI done, being enclosed in the equipment that feels like a narrow tunnel while a scan is done. Just thinking about that makes my heart race, so hopefully there will be some accommodation for avoiding that particular requirement.

 I don't mind giving blood, or answering questions, even though I might be cheating as I have reviewed the questions on the Mini-Mental Exam for practice. I cannot do math, and know one of the questions is to count backwards by sevens: Having never mastered multiplication, I readily admit to a profound lack of math skills. I can count by twos or fives or tens, backwards and forward, but never by seven.  So we will see how that goes.... It would be pretty disheartening to get the news I had failed math again, after all these years!