I went through a 4 hour battery of tests in January because I was having memory problems. After everything was scored, they diagnosed me with mild cognitive impairment which I guess can progress to Alzheimer's in up to 70% of those who have it. My neurologist's nurse was the one who gave me the diagnosis and was not empathetic or comforting at all. As you can imagine, I was extremely upset and scared.

I finally got in to see the neurologist himself. He said it's not necessarily mild cognitive impairment per se, but could be my bipolar meds causing it, or the bipolar itself. He said if I were to develop Alzheimer's it probably wouldn't happen until I'm in my '80s.

Cognitive impairment with BP is real and it can be scary. I felt like I was losing the part of my mind I had left. The good news is that your cognition can be improved. I write reminders and notes to myself and play challenging mental games and my memory has improved a lot.

Just one more wrinkle we have to deal with.