The Tangled Neuron

Questions about Dad's autopsy

I’ve spent days going through Dad’s autopsy report, and I’m really disappointed.  I don’t think it answers any of the questions we listed on the autopsy request. For example, I thought the autopsy would give a firm diagnosis of Alzheimer’s if Dad's brain had a lot of plaques and tangles .  Tangles aren’t addressed at all in this report, and the two statements about plaques seem contradictory to me.

I’ve sent Dad’s neurologist a list of questions hoping he can answer them.

Autopsy Report

I got Dad's autopsy report in the mail today.  It's four pages long, full of medical jargon, and depressing.  It's hard to imagine that your thoughts and emotions could one day be reduced to phrases like "right temporal cavity lesion" and "the cingulate gyrus appears prominent."

It will take a lot of work with a medical dictionary to try to make sense of this - I'll update you on my progress.