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Old 04-13-2015, 08:49 PM
 
Location: Sierra Nevada Land, CA
9,455 posts, read 12,477,246 times
Reputation: 16449

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Quote:
Originally Posted by tarajane2013 View Post
The CT scan my husband had showed protein particles on his brain. Now he has an appointment with a Dementia specialist but it is June, the soonest we could get him in. Now , thinking back about things and learning about Dementia it is hard to tell how long he has had this. He is on a lot of meds too. We are getting closer to our vacation and we are not getting along very well. He may be freaking out, now that I read stuff. I'm scared. I tried to talk to him about this but he just got really mad. I am wondering now if we should go on vacation to FL. He says he wants to go. But people with Dementia can change personalities from one hour to the next. Please help and suggest. Thank you
He is on a lot of meds you say? THAT is something to look at. Find a doc who is not a pill pusher. Take your husband's meds list. Lots of meds can make anyone stupid.
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:51 AM
 
676 posts, read 931,745 times
Reputation: 408
He is on heart meds, Lipitor , synthroid,warfarin. 6 pills in the am and 2 at night. He has a Cardiologist and a Nephrologist and a GP. We have an appt. today with his GP....Will let you know how it goes. Thanks
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Old 04-14-2015, 07:28 AM
 
5,097 posts, read 6,321,759 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheShadow View Post
Another possible cause for what APPEARS to be dementia but isn't could be a UTI or bladder infection, or even a B12 deficiency. Both are known causes of temporary cognitive problems. These are things that should be checked and eliminated before assuming it is some form of dementia.

Yes, was just reading about B 12 deficiency yesterday. I upped my dosage.
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Old 04-14-2015, 09:47 PM
 
9,446 posts, read 6,525,270 times
Reputation: 18898
Quote:
Originally Posted by tarajane2013 View Post
I think my husband is in the early stages of Dementia. Too many things to list here that makes me think that so can some of you let me know what to look for ? Thank you
Sleeping more, less attention to grooming, eating sweets, unable to handle finances as well, pretending to understand, frustration with spouse, wearing the same clothes over and over, getting lost. High blood pressure may be involved. The meds my husband was taking for enlarged prostate and for allergies all made it worse. Much improvement since we stopped them all.
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Old 04-15-2015, 04:50 AM
 
2,634 posts, read 3,678,167 times
Reputation: 5633
Quote:
Originally Posted by brava4 View Post
Yes, was just reading about B 12 deficiency yesterday. I upped my dosage.
Ironically, even though B12 is water soluble, if we get too much of it, it has negative effects. Best to have a blood test every 6 months, to check our levels.

Vitamin B12 Safety - Mayo Clinic
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Old 04-15-2015, 12:22 PM
 
Location: SW US
2,837 posts, read 3,163,317 times
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Also good to do genetic testing to look for mutations in MTHFR genes that make certain kinds of B12 contraindicated.
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Old 04-15-2015, 03:41 PM
Status: "Octopi tastes like snake" (set 19 days ago)
 
Location: in the miseries
3,573 posts, read 4,487,233 times
Reputation: 4401
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harpaint View Post
Sleeping more, less attention to grooming, eating sweets, unable to handle finances as well, pretending to understand, frustration with spouse, wearing the same clothes over and over, getting lost. High blood pressure may be involved. The meds my husband was taking for enlarged prostate and for allergies all made it worse. Much improvement since we stopped them all.
This sounds like the neighbor who was diagnosed with alzeimers in Dec.
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Old 04-15-2015, 06:52 PM
 
477 posts, read 506,269 times
Reputation: 1558
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fran66 View Post
The problem with these tests is that they will tell you only that you are cognitively impaired.
No. They will only tell if you are SEVERELY cognitively impaired.

Just because you can still recognize a pen, doesn't mean you aren't cognitively impaired.

By the time any of these tests show "impairment", I can guarantee you, you have been impaired for awhile. Most likely QUITE a while.

Quote:
Just FYI: I remember my neurologist saying: If you walk into a room and don't remember why you walked into the room -- that's fine. If you walk into the room and don't recognize the room -- that's bad. If you can't remember why you are at the store, that's fine. If you don't recognize the store, that's bad. If you are driving along, in a very familiar area, and you suddenly don't know where you are, that's bad.
None of those things - forgetting why you walked into a room, or why you went to the store - are "fine" when they are happening regularly. It's just WORSE if you don't recognize the place - not remembering why you went there is still a bad thing, when it is happening regularly.

Your neurologist is too flip about real problems. I've found that to be the case with every neurologist I've seen. They by and large ignore degradation of executive functioning, as long as you (eg) can still remember what a pen is for.

Quote:
Forgetting is not nearly as bad as being disoriented.
Oh sheesh. Being disoriented is often caused by forgetting. So - forgetting IS as bad as being disoriented, and often the one leads to the other.

There's another issue involved. The higher you function (intellectually) to start with, the longer it takes you to get to the place where these 5 minute tests will tag you as debilitated.

If you start with an IQ over 150 - its going to be a long, long time before you get to the place where you have forgotten what a pen is for.

None of these 5 minute quicky surveys (they are not actually tests) do anything to measure executive functioning. And it is executive functioning that is going to be degraded a long time before you've forgotten what to call a pen, and/or what it does.

Executive functioning includes things like being able to make a plan, being able to FOLLOW a plan, being able to remember and follow instructions, being able to evaluate a course of action. Things like being able to remember to brush your teeth regularly, fix meals safely and regularly, being able to plan a healthy meal, being able to perform multiple different actions sequentially. Being able to remember to check your mailbox regularly.

I have multiple deficits in executive functioning. I've also had degradation of vocabulary and speech. I started getting lost going to familiar places - like between work and home - when I was barely 30. I would not recognize where I was and would make panic turns and get REALLY lost. I learned to compensate by reminding myself to just keep going until I either recognized where I was, or found a parking lot to stop and look up where I was on a map - and for this reason, I kept multiple maps in the car, state maps, a USA road atlas, and city maps of every city I was likely to find myself in. I used MapQuest for any trip, no matter how familiar. If GPS had existed back then, I'd have had GPS devices as well.

I often didn't recognize people with whom I worked every day, especially if I met them outside of work - which gave me a reputation for being rude and snobbish. I just didn't know who they were so I'd walk right past. And it unnerved me when a (I thought) total stranger would greet me out in the wild. Again, in my 30's this started.

However I STILL pass all those 5 minutes-in-the-doctors-office surveys, so ... it's been tough getting an actual diagnosis. I remind myself that Sir Terry Pratchett, with all his millions, still took years and a ton of money and many many MANY doctor visits before he was finally diagnosed with a neurological disorder. Despite multiple neurological symptoms, I don't actually HAVE a neurological diagnosis - because they all think I'm TOO YOUNG to be having the kinds of cognitive issues I am having, and because I still know what a pen is called, and what it is for.

By the time I've sunk so far that I don't know what a pen is, it will be too late for whatever little bit of intervention might have been possible. The few medications they have that can slow this kind of loss of function down need to be administered early in the process - and by the time you've forgotten what a pen is for, it's just too late.

I'm not trying to frighten the OP - but the fact of the matter is, forgetting CAN be problematic, and CAN be a sign of other problems. The severity and frequency matter.

Also watch for other losses of executive function, such as not being able to remember how to program the TiVo, or not being able to remember one's own phone number (where you could in the past) or other important numbers; not being able to plan and prepare a meal; leaving the stove or oven on. I have developed a habit of turning off the heater because I can't program it to a lower temperature - its a programmable control, instead of a dial that I could easily change the setting on. Most of the time I can't figure out how to reduce the setting and make it stick.

And I was a software engineer. Its not like this type of technology is new to me.

Just because you can pass one of those 5 minute surveys - and the bar for "passing" on most of those is ridiculously low - doesn't mean there isn't something going on.
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Old 04-15-2015, 08:12 PM
 
2,634 posts, read 3,678,167 times
Reputation: 5633
I didn't read the whole thing. I read the first few paragraphs -- and you are wrong. No need to read the rest of the tirade. //// Oh, I just read the rest -- I was speaking in generalities, the norm. There are always people who are outside the norm. But that percentage is small.

You know, you really didn't understand what I said -- and that's all right. Writing isn't the best and clearest form of communication.

BTW, I really am sorry for your neuro problems. Very frightening, no doubt.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeonGecko View Post
No. They will only tell if you are SEVERELY cognitively impaired.

Just because you can still recognize a pen, doesn't mean you aren't cognitively impaired.

By the time any of these tests show "impairment", I can guarantee you, you have been impaired for awhile. Most likely QUITE a while.



None of those things - forgetting why you walked into a room, or why you went to the store - are "fine" when they are happening regularly. It's just WORSE if you don't recognize the place - not remembering why you went there is still a bad thing, when it is happening regularly.

Your neurologist is too flip about real problems. I've found that to be the case with every neurologist I've seen. They by and large ignore degradation of executive functioning, as long as you (eg) can still remember what a pen is for.



Oh sheesh. Being disoriented is often caused by forgetting. So - forgetting IS as bad as being disoriented, and often the one leads to the other.

There's another issue involved. The higher you function (intellectually) to start with, the longer it takes you to get to the place where these 5 minute tests will tag you as debilitated.

If you start with an IQ over 150 - its going to be a long, long time before you get to the place where you have forgotten what a pen is for.

None of these 5 minute quicky surveys (they are not actually tests) do anything to measure executive functioning. And it is executive functioning that is going to be degraded a long time before you've forgotten what to call a pen, and/or what it does.

Executive functioning includes things like being able to make a plan, being able to FOLLOW a plan, being able to remember and follow instructions, being able to evaluate a course of action. Things like being able to remember to brush your teeth regularly, fix meals safely and regularly, being able to plan a healthy meal, being able to perform multiple different actions sequentially. Being able to remember to check your mailbox regularly.

I have multiple deficits in executive functioning. I've also had degradation of vocabulary and speech. I started getting lost going to familiar places - like between work and home - when I was barely 30. I would not recognize where I was and would make panic turns and get REALLY lost. I learned to compensate by reminding myself to just keep going until I either recognized where I was, or found a parking lot to stop and look up where I was on a map - and for this reason, I kept multiple maps in the car, state maps, a USA road atlas, and city maps of every city I was likely to find myself in. I used MapQuest for any trip, no matter how familiar. If GPS had existed back then, I'd have had GPS devices as well.

I often didn't recognize people with whom I worked every day, especially if I met them outside of work - which gave me a reputation for being rude and snobbish. I just didn't know who they were so I'd walk right past. And it unnerved me when a (I thought) total stranger would greet me out in the wild. Again, in my 30's this started.

However I STILL pass all those 5 minutes-in-the-doctors-office surveys, so ... it's been tough getting an actual diagnosis. I remind myself that Sir Terry Pratchett, with all his millions, still took years and a ton of money and many many MANY doctor visits before he was finally diagnosed with a neurological disorder. Despite multiple neurological symptoms, I don't actually HAVE a neurological diagnosis - because they all think I'm TOO YOUNG to be having the kinds of cognitive issues I am having, and because I still know what a pen is called, and what it is for.

By the time I've sunk so far that I don't know what a pen is, it will be too late for whatever little bit of intervention might have been possible. The few medications they have that can slow this kind of loss of function down need to be administered early in the process - and by the time you've forgotten what a pen is for, it's just too late.

I'm not trying to frighten the OP - but the fact of the matter is, forgetting CAN be problematic, and CAN be a sign of other problems. The severity and frequency matter.

Also watch for other losses of executive function, such as not being able to remember how to program the TiVo, or not being able to remember one's own phone number (where you could in the past) or other important numbers; not being able to plan and prepare a meal; leaving the stove or oven on. I have developed a habit of turning off the heater because I can't program it to a lower temperature - its a programmable control, instead of a dial that I could easily change the setting on. Most of the time I can't figure out how to reduce the setting and make it stick.

And I was a software engineer. Its not like this type of technology is new to me.

Just because you can pass one of those 5 minute surveys - and the bar for "passing" on most of those is ridiculously low - doesn't mean there isn't something going on.
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Old 04-15-2015, 08:30 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
19,480 posts, read 24,978,757 times
Reputation: 51106
In addition to medical exams, I would suggest that your husband have a complete Neuro-psychological assessment. It is a battery of cognitive, language, and motor functioning tests that often takes several hours to complete. This type of complete assessment can specifically determine which areas of the brain, if any, is effected.

A person can be functioning at a normal (even above average or gifted) in parts of the brain while functioning like a person with mental retardation in other areas of the brain (such as executive functioning). (as NeonGecko described in his post). Of course, other people may show declines in all parts of the brain at the same time. It can vary dramatically from person to person.

I remember the first time that my husband was assessed. Before the actual assessments started my husband was "shooting the breeze" with the Neurologist/Psychiatrist by discussing various Supreme Court decisions regarding health care and other topics, yet during the assessment could not answer some questions that a typically developing four year old child could easily answer.

Of course, every person is different and there are many types of dementia and brain dysfunction, but in my husband's case he started declining approximately 15 years before it would ever show up in one of those five minute mini-tests (what is the date, who is the President, where are you now, etc). In his case, those "tests" would have been useless to diagnose his difficulties in cognitive functioning.

It is very scary but the more information that you have the better you can help your husband.

Good luck to you.


As others have mentioned, even something as simple as a Urinary Tract Infection can mimic dementia. That is why you need to see doctors who take your concerns seriously. Here is a recent thread, that I posted when my husband become completely disoriented due to a lung infection. Even some of the other doctors in the hospital seemed shocked at how much effect an infection could have on cognitive functioning.
//www.city-data.com/forum/careg...t-because.html

Last edited by germaine2626; 04-15-2015 at 08:42 PM..
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