Vascular Demetia

JR64REED

Hello, new to the site. My mother suffered a TIA event last year and there has been a serious cognitive decline since then. Short term memory is shot. We have had an MRI that showed evidence of vascular damage in the brain. PET CT is scheduled in a week or so. Anyone else out there going through a similar path as this. Thanks, JR

Crushed

My mother had and died of Vascular dementia 12 years ago.  My wife has Alzheimer's  No dementia care is easy but my mother could have an intelligent conversation up to 5 months before she died at 87.   Its been 4 years since my wife could even say may name or articulate a coherent thought She is 69

Rick4407

Hello JR,  Sorry you are here.  It's a club nobody wants to be in.  A simplistic summary is that the specific type of dementia, VD in your case, is determined by where in the brain things are going bad.  For VD its the white matter which is short term memory and executive function.  All end the same way, the durations are different and the specific symptoms vary but all are similar to a degree.  

My DW was initially diagnosed with VD and later Alzheimers was added.  She operates at about the level of a 2 year old child.   She initially diagnosed in 2016.  It's a slow trip down.  My best advise is to read as many of the posts here as you can.  Every thread offers some wisdom that will help you.  The medical community can do little more than offer drugs to try to control symptoms & behaviors.  Good luck,  Rick

JR64REED

Thanks Rick. I listen to the Dementia Care Podcase by Teepa Snow and it is very revealing, useful, and informative. Cant recommend it more! This surely is a club nobody wants to join but here we all are. I'm glad I reached out to this forum. Sometimes you feel isolated and without resources but this is the start of a journey I did not want but will go on because its with my mother and that matters.

jmlarue

Welcome JR. Thought I'd add my experience with Vascular Dementia since it is slightly different than the previous posters. Briefly, my DH only got his diagnosis 2 years ago, but in retrospect my judgement is that he has been showing symptoms going back about 6 or 7 years.

We knew that he had vascular damage from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. It became evident when he suffered a stroke 10 years ago resulting in right-side weakness in his arm and leg, plus slurred speech and difficulty finding his words. With physical and occupational therapy, he largely regained normal function over the following year. Two years later, he was experiencing shortness of breath and pain in his chest with exertion or exercise. The cardiologist identified 4 major blockages in the arteries to his heart and he performed a 4-way bypass surgery. Although he regained his physical strength, I began to notice signs of cognitive impairment over the next couple of years.

DH was constantly misplacing things; exhibiting short-term memory loss; struggling to operate electronics, like his computer, cell phone, and TV remote; and, most evident, was his loss of executive function. He couldn't seem to make a decision on anything. The man who could always handle home and auto repairs like a pro, suddenly couldn't start or complete a job more complex than changing a light bulb. By the time he was diagnosed with VD, he was largely incapable of remembering the names of friends or co-workers. An MRI showed that he had been suffering chronic micro-vascular stokes in various regions of his brain. Often referred to as TIAs, it was difficult to recognize what was happening because there weren't any real physical symptoms like he's had before. What this was doing was destroying small portions of his brain that caused the cognitive deficits - much like a computer hard drive where small sectors are destroyed and it wipes out the pointers from one bit of information to the next bit of information and scrambles the data.

My DH's congnitive decline has been relatively rapid compared to other forms of dementia. In the few years since his diagnosis of VD, he has lost his nouns (can't find the appropriate word to name people, places, or things). His speech is largely composed of non-sequitur phasing that is difficult to understand without playing the game of 20 questions. Worse, he struggles to comprehend what is being said to him, leading to misinterpretation, frustration and anger from him and everyone around him. His ability to use logic or reason is gone. Attempts to explain, argue or reason with him is futile.

Here's the thing I've noticed about the progression of his VD - it's not a smooth or gradual path. It's more like a person falling down a hillside. He might find a ledge to cling to on the way down and show no new deficits for a month (maybe more) and then, boom, he'll have another stroke or series of strokes where he'll tumble down that hill to another little ledge to cling to. Rinse and repeat. As a caregiver, adjusting to these abrupt changes is a challenge. Just when you think you have things figured out, boom, he falls off another ledge. At least, that's my perspective.

My wish for you is that your mom will find a gentler hillside and do a slow roll to the bottom. In the word's of Red Green, "I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."