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April 3, 2016.
As regular readers/posters on the caregiver forum know, my husband has a type of slowly progressing brain damage and had a Traumatic Brain Injury seven months ago. He ended out-patient therapy two and a half months ago and has attended Brain Stretchers (sort of like cognitive & social therapy) twice a week since then.
In the last few weeks I have noticed a slight, but very obvious, increase in my husband's confusion about facts, or perhaps you could call it slightly more disorientation.
Basically everything has been the same, same routine, same diet, same activities and he has not been sick. There were only three small changes in the last month. We went to the art museum for a few hours, we went to Easter dinner at my brother's house and we rehomed our dog so he does not walk his dog two or three times a week as he had been doing previously.
I have noticed him getting "lost" in our apartment more often, perhaps a dozen times a week. Usually it will just be momentarily. He may get up from the couch and start walking in one direction and then stop and turn around and go in the other direction and say "Oops, I wanted to go to the kitchen". Maybe, twice a week he will ask me "Where is the bedroom?" or "Where is the kitchen?"
Now, it is possible that he normally got lost that often, but is now just verbalizing it more.
We moved to this apartment when he got out of rehab 4 1/2 months ago. It is a typical two bedroom apartment of about 1,000 square feet. Maybe once or twice a week he will ask "How do I get downstairs" or "How do I get to the basement?". Normally, I will then ask him what he needs or what is looking for downstairs or in the basement and help him find or do what he needs. We lived in our townhouse style condo, with a full basement, for over 30 years before his TBI.
He is now asking about or getting confused as to who lives with us, more often. Almost every night he will ask about one or more relatives.
Such as "Where is Name (our adult daughter)?" Now, she did live with us for a full year and he does see her, sometimes briefly and sometimes longer, a couple times a week. But he also has been asking, perhaps once a week "Where is Name (our adult son)? who has not lived with us for well over a decade. and "Where is my mother?" who passed away about eight years ago.
Sometimes, he will ask why they aren't home for dinner or comment that it is late and why aren't they home. I usually just say that they don't live with us and he doesn't ask about it again. I never ask him questions like how old he thinks they are. Maybe he thinks that they are children or teenagers and he is worried about them.
Now, it is possible that he normally was curious about relatives or who lived her that often, but is now just verbalizing it more.
His other skills are about the same, or maybe slightly less. For a while he was really insistent about doing the grocery shopping by himself (with me waiting on a bench by the checkout) but he was having so much trouble finding things that now I walk with him. He also started to have more difficulty doing the laundry independently so I now either do it at the condo (while he is at Brain Stretchers/adult day care) or help him if he asks for help.
Other cognitive things appear to be able the same. He still reads the daily newspaper, plus the Wall Street Journal, he still can answer many questions on Jeopardy that even most college graduates would not be able to answer. He knows far more about the Presidential election and even our state & local elections than some/many people know.
But there have been a few odd things. Yesterday, he was getting up to get a snack so I asked him to get me a glass of water. Instead of going into the kitchen he went into our bedroom and I heard him opening and closing the doors & drawers to his dresser. I asked him what he was looking for and he said "A glass of water". I figured that I must have disrupted his train of thought, as he was heading into the kitchen for his snack, and that is how he got confused. I normally do not ask him to get me things, except occasionally, for things like the TV remote or the tissues that are sitting next to him. Or if he says something like "I'm getting a bowl of ice cream" I will ask him to bring me a bowl, too. And he almost always is able to do that.
Are these things that I should be concerned about?
Is there anything that I can or should be doing? (I am trying to encourage him to drink more water & juice, in case he is dehydrated).
Also, my husband mentioned to me that he felt that he was a little more confused recently. I had not mentioned anything to him so he either thought of this or noticed it himself.
He does have a EEG scheduled for Wednesday (to see if he should be taken off of the seizure medication they put him on after his TBI)and then we will meet with his neurologist again. He does not have any other doctor appointments for a few months.
Thank you for any input or suggestions. I am not really worried enough to call a doctor, but it is sort of a nagging fear that if he is regressing this fast in just a few weeks he/we could be in real trouble in a few months or a year or two. OTOH, it may be just as simple as he is not walking as much or getting as much fresh air as when he would walk the dog for a half hour or 45 minutes, two or three times a week (I would just sit in the car because of my rheumatoid arthritis while he walked the dog in the park or around a parking lot).
Last edited by germaine2626; 04-03-2016 at 09:54 AM..
Reason: added more information at the end.
Any changes in sleep patterns? Could any seasonal allergies be affecting things? These are just run of the mill things that I notice affect me, and I guess most people.
I think the point about exercise could be a factor. Exercise helps calm and focus the mind. Maybe it's affecting him?
Glad you have an appointment with the neurologist soon.
When you have a brain injury, anything that disrupts your normal baseline, even a little, can worsen your confusion. This includes poor sleep/sleep apnea, dehydration or lowered blood pressure from other reasons, new medications/drug interactions (many have side effect of fatigue, which can manifest as confusion), infections (uti's or respiratory infections, which sometimes have no symptoms except confusion), and stress. As you know, changes in routine are very hard to adjust to.
No, my husband's sleep patterns are the same as usual. I will try to include a little more outside activities just in case not walking the dog may be making a difference.
Other ideas?
Now today everything seemed perfectly fine (for the new normal).
Last edited by germaine2626; 04-03-2016 at 08:03 PM..
This sounds like dementia to me too. Classic, actually. I don't think you are imaging it or that he's just better at verbalizing it than previously - to me it sounds like it's a change and definitely one that needs to be brought to the attention of his doctor.
My MIL had Alzheimers and until it was VERY progressed, she was aware that she was getting more confused. I hated that part of it and was actually grateful when she finally didn't realize she was "going soft in the head" (her term). It was easier just to go along with whatever she was saying.
Now I get to go through this with my mom too. LORD DELIVER ME. I pray to God that I don't get this terrible affliction, not for my own sake but for the sake of my family.
I have noticed him getting "lost" in our apartment more often, perhaps a dozen times a week. Usually it will just be momentarily. He may get up from the couch and start walking in one direction and then stop and turn around and go in the other direction and say "Oops, I wanted to go to the kitchen". Maybe, twice a week he will ask me "Where is the bedroom?" or "Where is the kitchen?"
My mom got worse after she couldn't find her bedroom, she declined rapid 2 weeks after that.
My mom was doing this for over a month, then she started hiding things and accusing that people were coming into the house and stealing her stuff, she was hiding things we would not hide (ex nail polish), after awhile she'd ask me where her bedroom was, she has had the same bedroom, same place for 15 yrs. She was loosing her appetite and eating more candy, she wasn't a big candy eater before. She went from introvert to Loud, started obsessing about money, hiding money. She never quit talking
2 mo. ago was when she started getting lost at home things just got worse, she didn't want to take her meds, emptied the pills out of the bottles to make sure the drugstore had every pill in the bottle right, checking all the letters on the meds etc.
I had read that alzheimers /dementia patients hide what they think they'd need in case of an emergency.
I had to put Mom in a nursing home 2 weeks ago, I'm so sad about this I can't think straight, to me the other patients seem way worse than her but I know she's not getting any better from what she talks about,(she mentions she went to some ladies house or someone drove her here & there, etc) when I know she never left the nursing home.
Any advice I can think of is maybe he needs memory, cognitive functions tested again
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