elp me please re Altzeimers

[Jollymum]

My dad is 78 and is going weird. Please does anyone know te early symptons of this disease and could offer suggestions/help. I started to look on Google but got bogged down in info tat was irrelevant and scary. Thanks.xxx

I know a bit, my grandad has it.

Going to bed people, have a good night. Dad is looking like e's ready for a long night chatting so my great man is filling in for me to get some sleep.

I really need a new keyboard! Soory about the typos earlier.

I'll put as much as I know. We noticed he was 'not himself' when he:
-struggled to know day from night
-we realised (through going through his bins - necessary) that he was forgetting to eat

• he could not remember names of younger family members
• he would ring and ask the same question several times in a short period
• he was leaving himself notes all round the house

I'll try and remmeber more. My grandad (dg?!) is very good at compensating, for example, he has certain stock answers to questions that let him get away with having a conversation without actually knowing what the hell is going on. He often says, 'Of course' or something like that but, if I ask him a direct, non-leading question like, 'What's my name?' he can't answer it.

HTH

Sorry again1

Hi Jollymum,

My work involves a meeting a lot of people suffering from varying types of Dementia.

I am sorry to hear about your dad.

A few early signs of mild dementia are the obvious forgetfullness and loss of memory. Also they tend to be less willing to try new things or make decisions, can become selfcentred and can become irrational eg become irritable and blame others for what appears minor things.

Your GP can carry out a simple test (which involves asking questions - not invasive testing) to determine whether or not your dad has dementia, and then refer on to the appropriate places if necessary, if caught early , some forms of Dementia can be slowed down with medication - i'm afraid i am not sure for which forms this is used.

If you have a local carers organisation which you can find on www.carers.org.uk they will be able to support you and help you ensure you and your dad receive all the resources he is entitled to.

HTH!

My Nan has early stages of A, and it is really sad. She basically gets very confused quite a bit. She puts things in 'safe' places and then forgets that she has put them anywhere or where she has put them. She asks the same questions over and over again, not realising that she has already asked it. She has recently started to forget who people are and gets frightened and scared when people who are not family come to her house (the home help) She cannot remember what she has done during the day and makes things up like going for walks in the park that is miles away.it takes her a while to recognise family.

Early signs forgetfulness,confusion,repeating,innapropriate behaviour,paranoia,confabulation - making up things to cover embarrassment,anger. Acting out of charachter.
Perhaps a check from the GP to get all other things ruled out?
Urine infections notoriously affect the mind.
Best of luck and hope you sort somethings out for you and Dad.

Jollymum

sorry to hear about your dad, the other wise MNers have mentioned the major early symptoms. I think the compensating for not knowing answers and getting irritable is very telling. (My FIL lost the battle with alzheimers 2 years ago at only 67).

this is a test recommended in Australia for people to take themselves. It may not be suitable for your dad and I wouldn't recommend self diagnosis but it may give you an idea in to the kind of tests Fran1 mentioned.

FWIW Alzheimers patients can need a lot of looking after but their carers need to be strong as well. It is a very sad disease and there is rarely any effective treatment once a patient is beyond the very early stages.

I am sorry to be so blunt but I watched my MIL hoping against hope that the disease would be cured outright rather than slowed down and it almost broke her. Just want you to be prepared to care (practically not emotionally as it is obvious you do already) rather than to cure. Am willing to be corrected on this but this is the experience of our family.

My last post was awfully gloomy and it may not be all bad news for your dad.

For a start it may be another form of dementia and not Alzheimers, and it may just be old age. Plenty of veyold people carry on with forgetfulness and a bit of confusion and if they have the love and tolerance of their families they can live out their final years quite happily.

alzeimers society This may help Jollymum. I had to start looking it up the other day because my dad is going through the same - he's only 67 so we're particluarlary worrued. I took him to the GP last week and she sent him for blood and urine tests as well as a memory tes to try and eliminate other things before we assumed it was the beginnings of dementia.

I agree with all of the symptoms. With my mother , she began to act very much out of character. She began to live in the past, and thought that my brother and I were still children. She would have awful anxiety, would think that family or froends were lost.

If you are worried I would urge you to have a chat with your father's GP. There are some drugs, none are a cure but they can delay progression. you may also want to think about what you will do long term,it is easier to do this before you have to IYSWIM.

I would look at the Alzheimers society website. it is excellent and very supportive.

My Dad is 87 yrs old. He was diagnosed with Alzheimers about 3 years ago. He became very forgetful and easily confused. GP referred him to the memory clinic where he was assessed by 3 professionals such as psychiatrist and psychologist. He did various tests which confirmed early Alzheimers. He started a medication called Galantamine which seems to have helped. He is assessed about every 6 months. If he has been ill his scores go down but they allow for that. He tends to get fixated on certain subjects such as believing all the houses arouns us are going to be demolished. Can't get that one out of his mind.

Thanks for all the info. He's dreadful at time-keeping, gets angry with me if I try to hurry him and angry at himself for forgetting things. BUT he can sometimes talk really eloquently, without word forgetting, say about politics. I have had memory loss recently (from a bang on the head) and know how frustrating it is, but he doesn't seem to live in the real world sometimes and takes ages to do things. I'm unsure how much this is just pithering around 'cos he's old and maybe someting else. He's just had a hernia op and is very confused and quite adamant about really annoying things like prunes! He had them in the hospital so he as to have them at home. My Dh and I are biting our lips at the moment, but it took him from 8.30 until 12o'clock to get up, showered and he's not even dressed yet. I mentioned that as he hadn't had breakfast yet, he needed to take his first tablet with lunch and I swear you'd think I asked him a major question about rocket science. He can't get his head around changes and I am so worried about him. He's going to stay with a relative (my natural mum, but that's another story) and se's going to watch him for me.Thanks for all the replies-I might drop a note into his doctor, asking about the tests.

If he is having probelms with taking pills on time you can get a special box, which has 4 compartments for each day of the week, marked with the name and time of the day, so Monday breakfast etc. You can buy them in chemist shops. That may help to keep things organised for him

hmb, I got one of those for my nan, who found it useful. My grandad (with Alzheimer's) could not remember the time of day or the day of the week so not so good for him!

I think one of the things that goes is not just not knowing which day it is but forgetting how to find out what the date/time/day is.

With my mother we always thought of it as , 'It isn't that you have forgotten where your glasses are, it is that you have forgotten what your glasses are'. It is such an awful thing. i remember how awful it was the first time my mother didn't recognise me. She accused me of being the result of my father having an affair, and tried to throw me out of the house. It was awful. Thank god she didn't realise what she was saying or doing.

Hi

I am glad someone posted up the Alzheimers Society as they are great, and also run a helpline and will send leaflets.

My mum got it really early and had symptoms well before 60. Things that stood out were inability to deal with foreign currency on holiday, when she had always been an astute businesswoman. Also very erratic driving. Another thing was getting into a panic doing things she had previously done well, such as cooking a meal.

Getting a diagnosis was hard as I think she suspected she had it and delayed going to the doctor despite family encouragement. This was a shame as she missed out on a lot of time where the medication available would have helped her.

My advice would be try and see the doctor asap, even if you have to connive with them and go under some other pretext. Also, if your dad does have it, try and get informed and discuss his wishes for future treatment.

It's a hard conversation to have. We did not have it as we did not know enough about the progression of the disease. We had family agonies when it came to time to decide whether she should have artificial feeding via a tube, as different people thought different things, and she could no longer express herself. (She did receive a tube but that's another long and complicated story).

Good luck.

Jollymum,
My work uesd to involve assessing people with various forms of dementia.Like previous posters, I would urge you to get your dad properly assessed-urinary and other infections can really affect elderly people and symptoms can mimic those of dementia. Antibiotic treatment obviously causes vast improvement in these cases.
Your dad could also be suffering from "mini-strokes" which may be causing a step-like deterioration each time he has one-as opposed to the steady decline in Alzheimers.
Your GP may be able to refer your dad to a specialist "team" if you have one in your area, which would offer support and coping strategies for you all if he is found to have a form of dementia.

Tiggiwinkle, my mum has dementia because of mini strokes. She has one, gets very bad then recovers a little, but never back to 'normal'. It is very hard to deal with

hmb,
I am sorry to hear about your mother . Is she receiving any treatment? Has she (and you )been given any advice re. coping strategies to help with the effects of the dementia?
It is always hard to see someone becoming increasingly confused-worse in a way than if they are suffering a physical illness, because we often feel we are losing them as a person.

There isn't anything that they can do. She is on medication for her blood pressure, as that is a risk factor but there is no treatment. She is in the most wonderful hospital that specialises in caring for dementia patients. There is no other way of coping with her needs as she need 24/7 monitoring, she has no idea who we are, where she is, she often looses the ability to speak. She is also very violent. She has been there for over 3 years now. The staff are saints and it is a wonderful place. I never thaough that she would live so long, as she has been so bad in the past. It will be a blessing when she dies. . She would never have wanted to live like this, and in her more lucid moments (some years ago now) has said this to me.

hmb - I'm so sorry

Tiggiwinkle is right Urine infections often make elderly people more confused. A big sign is strong smelling urine, maybe see if the loo smells a bit stronger than normal.

Altzimers is relatively uncommon in my experience, as is dementia. Confusion however is not, and he does sound confused. Taking a lot time to get ready is not unsual, and sometimes elderly people can take a while to decode what you are saying, very frustrating for you, but I have encountered that quite a bit.

Would you be willing to get a carer in, maybe morning and night to make sure that he is up and dressed and has breakfast/dinner?

my grandad had it he kept putting things in the wrong place like shampoo bottle in the fridge and lemonade in the bathroom he forgot our names except my dads name