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Elderly parents

MIL with Alzheimers deteriorating fast

7 replies

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 08/11/2021 11:22

My MIL went into a home in mid January after a fall at home and a hospital stay. She'd obviously been suffering dementia for a few months beforehand (getting lost, hiding money and forgetting, acccusing us of stealing things ect) and after a month or so in the home was diagnosed with Alzheimer's stage 5/6 in February.

She'll be 90 in Jan and until dementia was laways very physically healthy. But she seems to have aged so fast and gone downhill so fast in the last year. After a day out visiting family on Saturday, she's clearly incontinent, urine and faeces (she was inco pads but it was clearly total incontincence, not just urine leaks). She is mistaking her son for her father/husband and her walking and psoture are much worse.

The home is good but she complains that they won't let her out whenever she wants or give her any money. The latest thing is that they don't feed her (for days at a time she says) or that the food has cockroaches or worms in. So that's obviously visual hallucinations, as well as the delirium about stealing.

I don't know why I'm posting really, it just seems so fast. I think she's well and truly in stage 6 now, severe dementia. I find myself wondering how much longer she might have, the way it seems to be just speeding along. The diagnosis was Alzheimers' but the home have mentioned possible vascular dementia as well.

I

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SleafordSods · 08/11/2021 19:21

I'm so sorry @OrangeBlossomsinthesun it sounds very much like how my DMIL progressed and it's truly awful.

The GPS might be able to help her with the delirium or at least help her to be more settled.

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 08/11/2021 20:15

The doctor goes to the home and there are nurses there too. (we're not in the UK). The home is very good.
I'm just kind of stunned by the speed of her decline I suppose. Her sister died of alzheimer's in 2020 at the age of 92 and I kind of think MIL might even not make it to 92, her Alzheimer's seems to be rampaging through her brain so much faster.
There never seems to be a plateau iyswim she just gets worse and worse.
Does it sound unusually fast?

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SleafordSods · 08/11/2021 20:19

Does it sound unusually fast?

I only have experience of one family member but no, I don't think it sounds especially fast although I know it will feel very quick to you Thanks

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 08/11/2021 20:26

It's so shit honestly. I just felt so awful for her with the incontinence, she always loved clothes and having her hair done and was so clean. She used to paint her own nails, always had them long and blood red.
At least she won't remember about crapping herself. She's got that vacant look a lot of the time too. It's like she's disappearing.

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RaoulDufysCat · 16/11/2021 23:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PanicBuyingSprouts · 17/11/2021 07:57

@RaoulDufysCat I'm so sorry that you're going through this but not sure you've posted on the right thread?

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun said her DMIL is 90 not 92?

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 17/11/2021 08:21

She's 90 in January. I appreciate that is a good age but it doesn't really make up for rampaging dementia that is stripping away the person she was and making her paranoid, fearful and distressed.
I'm sorry about your mum.

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