Is this dementia ?

sunshine5

My senior husband who has been having memory issues lately has been putting the ice cream in the fridge instead of the freezer. Ice cream is all melted!

Any one else’s loved one doing this?

How annoying!

Ed1937

Hello Sunshine. Welcome to the forum. Sorry you are dealing with this. Has your husband gone through all the testing? There are many conditions that can bring on symptoms associated with dementia, and those things need to be ruled out. If something else is causing the symptoms, it might be treatable, and the symptoms could disappear. We have a lot of good people here to help you with problems like this, make suggestions to you, or just give you support. Having said that, nothing that a person with dementia (PWD) does will surprise me. Their brain is not working properly, so they might do anything.

LadyTexan

Welcome Sunshine.

Ed summed it up very well. Medical and neuro-psychological testing are important to determine if it is a dementia or something else.

My husband's symptoms presented very subtly in the beginning. For example, having confusion for about a mili-second when buttoning his shirt. Losing his phone, keys and glasses with increased frequency. Putting his shoes on the wrong feet.

Good for you for being alert and asking the question. I will admit that I have put ice cream in the fridge (instead of the freezer) at least twice. I did mend my mix-up rather quickly. Yep it is a mess. It is very sticky. 

Again, welcome.

ElaineD

Dear sunshine,

I think that at the beginning dementia can present in many ways.

In our case it was my two sons who first noticed the changes in my DH.  At least four years ago, if not longer, they kept telling me that 'Dad is losing it'.

Now my DH has always been forgetful (typical absent minded professor), so I just brushed it off.  I wasn't seeing the changes they saw.  

I did see a terrible change in his personality, he was increasingly angry, critical, and cruel.

Then we made a major move to our Senior Living Community and that revealed to me how many ways he was 'losing it'.

That's what brought me to this forum.

I found that besides typical memory loss, someone with dementia may have:

1.  Personality changes

2. Apathy

3. Loss of Empathy

4. Loss of social filter (saying or doing inappropriate things in public).

5. Loss of executive function (planning and carrying out activities like cooking, planning a move, etc.)

Those described my DH exactly.  I could see those changes long before I could see his progressing memory loss.  My DH has several family members with Vascular Dementia, which is most likely what he is experiencing now.

He hasn't put the ice-cream in the refrigerator, but in the past two years we had what I call the 'what box' syndrome.

  1. I see an empty Amazon box that arrived while I was out. 

   2. I ask 'what came in the box?

   3. My DH answers: "What box?"

When I show him the box, DH doesn't remember it, nor what came in it, nor what he did with the contents.  This box had arrived less than an hour ago!  Some detective work on my part shows me where my DH has stacked the contents.

Sometimes however, DH puts away the contents, which I run across later.  This is so frustrating.

DH also does not remember major vacations we have taken in the past five years.  He knows he has memory issues but claims they are normal for his age (82).  

I think my DH has anosognosia, the inability to recognize his own dementia condition.

Obviously, he has not has ANY testing.  It will take major problems for me, or probably our son, to insist on testing.

This is a long journey, and if it is truly dementia the journey goes only in one direction, unfortunately.

Welcome,  Elaine

Rescue mom

Separating “absent-minded” from dementia is hard at first, and it’s easy to say it’s just normal aging, and some may indeed be. 

Here are some things that made me more concerned: the man who was empathetic to a fault suddenly had none. I was googling to see if empathy disappeared with aging.

The man who would not let someone lift a feather without wanting to help would happily sit and just watch others do all chores, even those that he always did  before.  Prepare for a coming hurricane, which he used to scurry like a maniac doing? Nothing. Help neighbors after a storm, efforts he led before? Nothing.

The man who wanted to vacation/travel and could pack like a pro, just stared at his empty suitcase before a trip. Asked to start packing, he looked at his closet and wandered away. 

He said he was “tired of” paying bills and asked me to take over. Same for  assembling income tax documents. (I found later that what he did assemble was totally wrong, like cards and magazines.

All those are apathy, and loss of executive function (ability to plan, think though and follow through)

Elaines example with the box, and similar objects,  happened here, a lot.

Family laughed it off, said he just didn’t feel like doing (whatever). He could still make acceptable social exchanges then, but no real back-and-forth discussion, and admitted not remembering many recent events. I wasn’t so sure it was normal, it was all SO unlike him. If I directed every single step, he’d do it, no objections. (We never realize how many steps are involved in most things we do automatically, like packing a suitcase, unload dishwasher, fix your bagel, etc.)

It was when he got lost driving to his doctor of 40 years, 2 miles away, I knew this was not normal and scheduled tests. I just told him we were going to the doctor for some further check-up. He did not ask why nor object. Tests showed early midstage Alzheimer’s. Family still would not believe until they saw the brain scans, which were quite dramatic.

sunshine5

Thanks so much to all who replied to my post. I am so glad I joined this group.

We are going to another neurologist next month who will do the necessary test. Current neurologist suggested Aricept, side effect is seizure. 

My husband is already on Keppra for seizures. Memantine made him more confused, had to stop that. So currently he is not taking any memory meds.

He will have a hearing aid fitted this week, which may help.

Meditation, massage and excercise helps too.

I understand aromatherapy may help. 

DH is diabetic and has a heart and kidney stage 3 B.

I am all for natural approach rather than meds which always have side effects !

 

Ed1937

sunshine5 wrote:

So currently he is not taking any memory meds.

My wife never took any memory meds. She refused them three or four times before they finally gave up on her taking them. She does take meds for other things.

 

aod326

DH put ice-cream in the fridge on an almost daily basis and, considering that ice-cream had become one of his major food groups, I knew I couldn't just remove the ice-cream. I was proud of my "solution". I made signs with pictures and words to show which side the ice-cream went in. (The pictures also showed what shouldn't gp in the freezer, like sandwiches, salad etc.) When it still kept happening, I realized that even though he could read the words, he didn't any longer understand what they really meant.

When he moved to MC last year, I kept the tub of his favorite ice-cream in the freezer and it makes me smile practically every day!