A Dementia That Can Be Cured

“I couldn’t even sign my name,” says an ex-teacher. It took years for doctors to spot the real cause.

- By Russell McLendon

At first, Dorothy Sorlie thought she was just getting old, though not as gracefully as she’d hoped. Retired from teaching English at a local college near her home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Sorlie, then 74, began losing interest in things she’d enjoyed, including reading and cooking. “I thought, Where are the good authors these days? Well, it wasn’t the authors, it was me,” she said. She couldn’t concentrate. Her handwriting changed. The symptoms occurred so gradually that initially she wasn’t aware anything was happening. “It wasn’t like when you get a pain in your knee and know you need to see a doctor,” says Sorlie.

Things kept getting worse. Her neat teacher’s handwriting went from sloppy to illegible. “When you have to sign over power of attorney to your husband because you can’t even sign your name—that’s a terrible feeling,” she says. She started worrying that she might be developing early dementia.

The physical symptoms progressed too. Despite having been a good swimmer, she found she could no longer even stay afloat in a pool. More worrisome, she began having trouble walking and started falling. She also experienced urinary incontinence. Through it all, her doctors struggled to explain what was happening.

“My decreased mobility was blamed on my arthritis and my right foot, which needed surgery,” Sorlie told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. “My lack of interest ... I blamed on pain. The reality was I was unable to concentrate.”