DW diagnosed a while ago

feelsad

Hi, I'm new here. My wife was diagnosed with ES AD last year. But we first noticed her big memory issues back in 2017. Due to another special need person in the family who my wife was caring for we did not think that her own condition was so bad, we all thought her problems stem from her being tired from caring for her special need son plus work plus...

Until the time when he moved out and we eventually realized of her own condition. So, it took several years for the diagnosis, she's now on disability and takes a bunch of medications that everybody with AD does. Frequesnt visits for the Neuro MD became now very rare as he does not know what to add to what we already do and know.

Does anybody know how the phases of this terrible desease move? Where and when is the breakdown point, nobody really can say anything for certain.

Any response and advise what to expect is helpful. Thanks!

M1

Welcome to the forum FS, you have come to the best possible place for support and advice. I personally don't have experience with early onset disease but there are plenty here that do. If you read a lot of threads you'll learn a ton.

Good luck to you, im sorry you are facing this but you're not alone.

oops just saw you said early stage, not early onset, big difference. Look up tam Cummings seven stages of dementia, it's a very helpful description of common behaviors in the different stages of disease.

SusanB-dil

Hi feelsad - Welcome to 'here', but sorry for the reason.

Sometimes 'this' isn't noticed because a lot comes on slowly, until you realize there have been issues for a while.  

M1 is right - check Tam Cummings 

Here is a helpful link about the stages. Although the steps can vary a bit from person to person, it is a pretty good idea: https://www.alzheimers.net/stages-of-alzheimers-disease

MIL is well into stage 5, and has stepped into stage 6, maybe a little more often lately. None of this is easy. This forum has helped me a lot, and I'm sure you will find the same.  You are not alone.

Also - important - do make sure you have POA and HIPAA access.

mommyandme (m&m)

Welcome, so sorry you’re need to be here though.  Was you wife dx’d with Early Onset or Early  Stage AD?  Not that it makes a difference in getting great advice from these lovely folks.  

Here’s a link that may help:

 https://www.dementiacarecentral.com/aboutdementia/facts/stages/

Seems like my mom was going to the neurologist every 4-6 mos when she progressed to moderate, stage 4/5 AD. 

I’m just really sorry we all need to be here but for me it’s the best place to be. 

feelsad

Thank you.

feelsad

Thanks M1, my bad - it is the EO ALZ, she's only 57 now and been diagnosed last year, but it's all started back in 2016/2017.

GothicGremlin

Hi feelsad, I'm so sorry to hear about your wife. I agree with the others, you're in the right place.

My sister has early onset as well. She was diagnosed at 59 (2018), she's 63 now and has been in memory care for a year now.

I've read (and experienced) that people who have early onset can progress more rapidly than those who are older when diagnosed. Peggy probably had mild cognitive impairment as far back as 2010-2011, but it's taken me awhile to piece all of that together.

I use the links that others have posted as well - they're quite useful. A book that I found useful is Somebody I Used To Know by Wendy Mitchell. She was also diagnosed with early onset, and that book gave me some insights about what Peggy is going through.