Dementia

[jestah]

Your Highness, my grandmother was been in an Assisted Living home for the past year now. Recently, we have come to learn that the doctors there have diagnosed her with Dementia, but how we found out was a bit more odd. She fell a few weeks ago at the home and was taken to the hospital where they found a broken shin. She was sent to a short term rehab center where it was from them that we learned of her diagnosis. They are now calling asking what our plans for her long term care are since the home will not take her back given the advanced stage of her disease. They now say that she has absolutely no short term memory. Is it possible for Dementia to go from one extreme to the next like this in a matter of 3 weeks? Or is this a case of it not being picked up early enough and now it's at the point of no return?



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thanks blakjeezis for the sig

[HordeKing1]

JESTAH - I'm sorry about your grandmother. Dementia is very hard on the family whose loved one is affected by it.

There are several different types of dementia and some like Alzheimers develop very slowly and over a period of years. Other types however, progress VERY rapidly.

Dementia is another way of saying "senile." It's not inevitable with age, but 15% of the senior population is afflicted with the illness.

"Delirium" is characterized mainly by the clouding of consciousness, disorientation and recent memory loss. Signs arise ABRUPTLY (hours to days), fluctuate wildly, and often become worse at night (this is called "sundowning"). However, delirium rarely persist for more than a month (by then the patient is demented or dead).

"Dementia" is characterized by loss of intellectual abilities, especially memory, judgment, abstract thinking and language skills - plus marked changes in personality and impulse control. Most dementias begin gradually (months to year) but may erupt suddenly after trauma (like a fall where the head is hit). It is certain that your grandmother fell. Although only a broken shin was found it is not unreasonable to assume she hit her head as well.) Initially, there is memory loss of recent things (where did I put those keys?), later episodes may include getting lost in familiar locations, repeating questions b/c the answers are forgotten. People dwell on childhood memories.

Alcohol aggravates all dementias.

One of the critical diffrential diagnosis regarding dementia is to make certain that it is not confused with "pseudo-dementia" which is a sign of major depression that is treatable.





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[Badinia]

Yeah, Sundowning is a symptom of Alzheimer's- this isn't what's wrong with Whatley.....

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3e/HomelessFezWhatley.jpg/200px-HomelessFezWhatley.jpg

is it?

[SatCam]

miss horde

[Bulldogcakes]

Kinda late to be replying, but my Nana had something similar happen. She burned herself badly while cooking on her stove, was taken to the hospital and mentally was never the same again. I don't know if it was the drugs they gave her for the pain, or the shock and stress of the incident itself. But mentally she was a shell of her former self afterwards. She was in her late 80's when it happened, and lived a few more years after it happened.

[KnoxHarrington]

My mom is in a rather advanced stage of dementia now. The progression gets faster and faster as it goes along; she's definitely declined more in the past six months than she did in the years up to that.

In retrospect, as I look back on what happened, I think she had it much longer than we thought, but it was easy to sort of rationalize it, or think it's just "senior moments". I kind of wonder if that might be happening with your mom.