A degenerative brain disease, cause unknown, no treatment, dementia in early age 30s.<p>Following a surgical procedure for heart problem, which was relatively easy for current medicine, it's as if his brain didn't come back, his personality changed, he was losing the ability to be himself.<p>Horrible, but real.<p>Also today I sat with a close family member as they received a diagnosis for a serious psychiatric illness. Treatable, but the drugs currently available have rough side effects. It's not going to get easier.<p>The article characterizes Halloway's disease as a "rare" disorder, only one in 5,000 people.<p>But it really seems as if the bigger picture, of everyone currently sidelined with "Long COVID" or chronic mental health conditions or both... Well, it's less rare than I might like it to be.
A bit of a shot in the dark but I wonder if Lee Holloway had (has?) a latent vitamin B12 deficiency? Serum tests for B12 deficiency are notoriously unreliable so it may not have been detected unless other tests were performed.<p>Vitamin B12 deficiency can disrupt sleep patterns, can cause symptoms consistent with FTD (including brain atrophy), and the use of nitrous oxide in general anesthesia on someone suffering from B12 deficiency can result in devastating neurological effects.<p>Like I said, it's definitely a shot in the dark but it's definitely something to think about.