PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rebecca E. MacDonell-Yilmaz
TI  - Counting Backward by Seven
AID  - 10.1370/afm.2607
DP  - 2020 Nov 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 561--562
VI  - 18
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/6/561.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/6/561.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2020 Nov 01; 18
AB  - I delayed my neurology rotation in medical school because I was trying to ignore the symptoms of dementia developing in my mother. They became painfully apparent when I saw my parents less frequently after I moved away for residency, and finally had to be addressed when I had a child of my own and felt unsafe having her care for him. Through my experiences with her and in my training in palliative care and oncology, I have learned that tools like the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Functional Assessment Staging Test (FAST) can only tell us so much; the true measure of a patient’s decline can be found in the patient’s and family’s own story.