Anyone whose watched a family member or friend go through the stages of Alzheimer's knows how difficult it can be both for the caregiver and the patient, but as Heather Mills reports, as many as 5 percent of patients with dementia may actually be affected by another treatable condition.

It's called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, or N.P.H. for short, and it's often mistaken for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. One Texoma family knows exactly how difficult it can be to get a correct diagnosis. Four months ago, Jimmy Nowell couldn't do this.

Jimmy Nowell said, "I couldn't walk up those steps without hanging on that rail to pull myself up them."

There was a lot of things he couldn't do. Diagnosed with Parkinson's, Jimmy had also begun taking medication for Alzheimer's. An auto parts salesman for fifty years, Jimmy said he first noticed physical changes, but attributed them to getting older.

Jimmy said, "It got to like where I was walking in glue or had magnets on my feet. A shuffle step."

Jimmy said he found he could no longer do the things he loves. A certified master gardner and volunteer fire fighter. Life as he once knew it had changed.

"I was falling a lot. I was stumbling and couldn't walk a straight line," said Jimmy.

He could no longer work.

Jimmy said, "It got to where I couldn't remember how to file a daily report on the computer. I couldn't remember how to operate the computer."

"It was like having a two year old."

The Nowell's began looking into assisted living for Jimmy, who was also undergoing treatment for prostate cancer when his doctor suspected he might actually have Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, or N.P.H., and not Parkinson's or Alzheimer's as once diagnosed. Doctor Langham Gleason, a Neurosurgeon in Wichita Falls confirmed the diagnosis with an M.R.I. scan of Jimmy's brain.

Dr. Gleason said, "These fluid spaces would be significantly smaller."

N.P.H. is a treatable progressive neurological disorder which is caused by a build-up of fluid in the skull, which causes the ventricles of the brain to enlarge creating a triad of symptoms including dementia, difficulty walking, and urinary incontinence. It typically gets progressively worse over time, and is often misdiagnosed.

Dr. Gleason said, "They, for the most part, are just there. For lack of a better term, just kind of vegging out like a couch potato."

Jimmy fit the medical profile for N.P.H., and was a candidate for shunting; a surgical implantation of a flexible tube which drains the excess fluid in the brain, providing relief of symptoms. Dr. Gleason used a programmable shunt, which allows him to adjust the pressure with a magnetic device from outside the skull.

"It makes a lot of previous invasive procedures from complications from shunting non-invasive with the electromagnetic programmer," said Dr. Gleason.

In less than 20 minutes, Dr. Gleason and his team had successfully implanted the shunt into Jimmy's head.

Hours later, Jimmy said he was awake and back to normal.

Jimmy said, "When I went into the hospital, when I had the surgery, I went in on a cain doing the shuffle step. When I woke up the next morning after the surgery, I walked out and walked down the halls. I wanted to dance."

Ann Nowell said, "When I got off the elevator the morning after the surgery and he walked down the hall toward me, with a normal walk and he knew me, I just burst into tears."

Dr. Gleason said he gave Jimmy an 85 percent chance of full recovery, and is thrilled with the results.

"He's improved tremendously, almost like a different person. I don't feel like i really met Jimmy Nowell when I first went into the room before the surgery. It was really at one of the post-operative visits that I really began to be able to sense his personality," Nowell said.

Jimmy planted a garden this year, and said he's ready to start fishing again, and living life.

"It's like when we were first married. I mean, I've got my old Jim back," said Nowell.

It's estimated about 375,000 people in the U.S. diagnosed with dementia, may actually have N.P.H. Dr. Gleason said not all patients can be cured, but programmable shunts often alleviate many or most of the symptoms. If you would like more information on Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, go to the links section of our website, KAUZ.com and click on N.P.H.