Dementia. How fast does it progress? (doctor, symptoms, treatment, sleep)
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My father is 75 and has had every test since noticing his memory wasn’t what it once was. They confirmed early stage dementia. He still seems like himself for the most part and goes about his day and still active. I just notice he seems a little more agitated easily and doesn’t always realize what time it is. Like one day he was working on the house. I stopped by after work and he didn’t realize it was already after 5 and asked if I had taken the day off. From people who experienced loved ones with Dementia. How long was it before they didn’t recognize you anymore?
I think it varies widely. My Dad stopped recognizing his children after about 3 years from diagnosis, but I think he had dementia before he got the official diagnosis. Plus some days he was more lucid than other days.
A diagnosis of dementia is not enough. What kind of dementia? Vascular, Alzheimers, Fronto Temporal, Lewy Body? Find a geriatrician if you can, and have him evaluated more thoroughly.
The Alzheimer’s Association has information and support for all dementias. Do explore their website for information.
There are many posts about how caregivers have coped, in the Caregivers forum.
My father is 75 and has had every test since noticing his memory wasn’t what it once was. They confirmed early stage dementia. He still seems like himself for the most part and goes about his day and still active. I just notice he seems a little more agitated easily and doesn’t always realize what time it is. Like one day he was working on the house. I stopped by after work and he didn’t realize it was already after 5 and asked if I had taken the day off. From people who experienced loved ones with Dementia. How long was it before they didn’t recognize you anymore?
My wife is in the same boat,83,I posted on New Alzhemirs Treatment that this month the doctor prescribed a new medicine for frontal dementia and I said I will give it some time to see if any good,was hopeing someone else might have comment.
My father is 75 and has had every test since noticing his memory wasn’t what it once was. They confirmed early stage dementia. He still seems like himself for the most part and goes about his day and still active. I just notice he seems a little more agitated easily and doesn’t always realize what time it is. Like one day he was working on the house. I stopped by after work and he didn’t realize it was already after 5 and asked if I had taken the day off. From people who experienced loved ones with Dementia. How long was it before they didn’t recognize you anymore?
A diagnosis of dementia is not enough. What kind of dementia? Vascular, Alzheimers, Fronto Temporal, Lewy Body? Find a geriatrician if you can, and have him evaluated more thoroughly.
The Alzheimer’s Association has information and support for all dementias. Do explore their website for information.
There are many posts about how caregivers have coped, in the Caregivers forum.
I agree. Please contact the Alzheimer's Association for assistance.
Not only are the various types of dementia different, but how each individual responds to the disease is different as well. In some types of dementia it may be several years before someone does not recognize relatives in other types of dementia it may be a decade or more or they may always recognize close relatives. Even within the same type of dementia there can be a huge variation on progression of the disease.
My father is 75 and has had every test since noticing his memory wasn’t what it once was. They confirmed early stage dementia. He still seems like himself for the most part and goes about his day and still active. I just notice he seems a little more agitated easily and doesn’t always realize what time it is. Like one day he was working on the house. I stopped by after work and he didn’t realize it was already after 5 and asked if I had taken the day off. From people who experienced loved ones with Dementia. How long was it before they didn’t recognize you anymore?
As other posters have noted, there are all sorts of different timelines and paths to the progression of dementia and Alzheimers. Even after my dear late Mom had a brain bleed from a fall and had to move to the locked memory care unit, she still recognized my sister and myself. Her face would light up each time we visited her, and she was 94 when she passed in her sleep after 5 years of the disease.
In the case of my MIL, from the time we first starting noticing lapses until her death (from pneumonia, not Alzheimer's) was about 10 years and she never failed to recognize us. At first it was just that she would ask the same question multiple times in an hour and not remember the answer. Another early sign was her inability to navigate anything other than the most familiar environments, like not being able to find the cash registers or exits from a store, or not being able to find any product without assistance from us, or a clerk.
Dementia is a symptom of several different conditions, all with their own timelines, and different people can have different progression of symptoms. Try to just be compassionate to his situation and love him and treat him with respect as his symptoms progress. Learn as much as you can about his condition, and plan for him to need more help over time.
One tip I can give you is to not ARGUE with him. As time passes he will say or do things that don't make sense, just do what needs to be done and try not to argue or contradict him, it will only escalate and be ugly. My MIL developed a habit of losing things (her keys, her wallet, the TV remote), and then saying they had been stolen. Then she would try to prevent us from searching for them, saying she'd already looked everywhere and they were stolen. We would just say..."We know you already looked, but I'm just going to check one more time", as we searched the drawers, etc. Of course we always found the object, but sometimes you just have to be sweet and cajole them into doing what needs to be done.
For some people, their parents become more irritable and difficult to work with, but for us just trying to be agreeable to her verbally, while quietly doing the things that needed to be done behind the scenes, worked really well and we found her to be sweet and kind until the end.
Second tip, is to make sure you have a power of attorney in place for his financials, and a medical proxy form, as well as his advance medical directives regarding end of life care. Get this done while he is still competent to do so. At some point you will have to take over doing his bills and his medical care, so just get all this stuff lined up.
My dad had Alzheimer’s. Looking back on what changed, he had it about 7 years before dying in a nursing home. At about year 5 he didn’t know who most of his family were. He went downhill very fast in the last year. His personality changed, and by the end he was bedridden.
I hope your dad isn’t experiencing dementia, just some absent mindedness.
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My mother had lewy-body dementia, but it was originally diagnosed as Alzheimer's. From that original diagnosis, to her passing was just about 5 years exactly. Lewy body dementia (which also has symptoms of Parkinsons) progresses a bit faster. I have a great Aunt who just had dementia and lived at least 10 years before passing.
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