Mom ok physically

Peonie60

We are getting ready to move mom to memory care. She has dementia but not Alzheimer’s. She and dad have been in IL for 4 years but she is now requiring more care than he (age 86) can provide. She pretty much needs to be watched or supervised 24/7–from getting dressed in the morning, thru toileting issues, supervision while eating and finally getting ready for bed. He’s overwhelmed and we’re fortunate that their place has an excellent MC across the parking lot where he can visit daily. 

Mom’s memory issues have been increasing over the last 10 years but have really gotten bad in the last year and especially the last month. But she’s in great shape physically—good appetite, walks well, has no problem with stairs. She does nap and sleep a lot on most days. We are wondering if there’s a pattern for patients with dementia who are in good shape physically? How does the disease progress? We’ve been told that it’s likely she’ll be gone within a couple of years, but her body right now seems to say, “No way!” This is all so hard but arming ourselves with knowledge seems to help us all. TIA

sandwichone123

Susan, it can be hard to see the illness of the brain as an illness. If it were an illness of other organs it's sometimes easier to see it as serious while the rest of the person's organs are pretty healthy. But brains are the boss of everything.

Digestion? controlled by the brain. Mobility? controlled by the brain. Even things like thyroid function are controlled by the brain, so when the brain's functioning gets so limited it doesn't send the signals to breathe, pump, digest, the health of other body parts offers little recourse.

loveskitties

My father was in very good health with no known issues when diagnosed with dementia.

Within 2 years he developed abdominal hernia, pancreatitis, multiple falls, and finally a heart condition.

Was any of this due to dementia...the falls for sure, the other things not known.

He died approximately 2 years after diagnosis.

Every patient is as individual as their finger prints.  How they progress, what issues they have, how slowly or quickly they decline.

Unfortunately, the family and caregivers have no way of predicting until very close to the end.

Wishing you and yours the best possible time with her.

M1

Susan I think sandwich123 has a good point . We don't talk about dementia as "brain failure" the way we talk about age-related failure of other organs, but that's essentially what it is. And brain failure is just as lethal as heart failure, kidney failure liver failure, or emphysema. I actually think it's a useful way of thinking about it.

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May flowers

My FIL was a lot like your mom healthwise and is going on 8 years with vascular dementia. The cognitive decline was slow but steady. I do think his daily walks (miles) and sunshine helped his cognition but it was still overall on a downward slope.

I think that not having as many hospital visits, pain and/or medications that go along with some health conditions has made a difference overall. The biggest downturns my FIL has had has been in the past year, and were related to pain, discomfort, disorientation.  Last year at this time he was around late stage 5, early 6 - now he is mid stage 7. If you had seen him a year ago you would not know he had dementia until you talked to him.

I edited out my long winded story, lol. I did want to add that I asked the hospice nurse her opinion if there was any difference between dementia patients who had co-morbidities and those who did not. She said her theory is it might slow it down in the earliest stages but she really didn’t see that much difference in stage 7.

Battlebuddie

   I think that the dementia journey is different for everyone . But it does follow a similar arc over time. Your LO is OK physically , as in no major health issues. 

   But , in my opinion, the physical decline is showing up in the sleeping. The brain is working overtime to just process incoming info and preform daily functions. Yes she is doing it, but the brain is needing more and more sleep to get it done. So her body is saying” I can do this but not without a lot of recovery and rest”

   My husband was an athlete when diagnosed at 52 . He continued to stay fit for many years but  finally he couldn’t do all he needed to do to be himself with out more and more rest and sleep. He now pretty much sleeps round the clock .Just staying awake through breakfast is tiring and he will sleep through lunch. 

    There is no way to predict how your LO journey will go . Enjoy the mobility she has and enjoy all that she can do for now. 

Quilting brings calm

I think that this group of diseases progress based upon the brains capacity to ‘work around’ the disease.   The first part involves just the area of the brain affected.  Depending on that area, there may be physical symptoms or not. 

As it progresses, more and more of the brain is affected, and therefore more physical symptoms.  For a while( maybe even multiple years)  extra rest and peace  and quiet allow the brain to deal with the body. Even though it has to let the higher brain functions ( memory, speech, personality) go.  But at some point, the brain is just too damaged and the body begins to fail.  That failure just gets worse as time goes on.  Added physical stress such as other illnesses make that go faster.