Late Stage Dementia

garzafamilyof5

For anyone that has lived through late stage as a care giver can you please let me know how long your loved one lasted? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how fast my mother is progressing. Everyday just seems to be something new that catches me off guard. Any insight would be appreciated.

BassetHoundAnn

Do you know what substage your mom is in? There are some good staging tools:

https://www.alzinfo.org/understand-alzheimers/clinical-stages-of-alzheimers/#:~:text=Stages%206c%2C%206d%2C%206e&text=As%20the%20disease%20evolves%20in,many%20cases%2C%20by%20frequent%20toileting.

https://tala.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Tam-Cummings-LLC-Handouts.pdf

Much depends on the type of dementia your mother is suffering from. Vascular dementia can move very swiftly. Alzheimer's can drag on for years.

My father-in-law had vascular dementia and seemed to vanish within a couple years. My mom has Alzheimer's and has been in late Stage 7 for nearly a year. We thought we were going to lose her last Thanksgiving, she was actively dying according to hospice. She suddenly sprung back full-throttle and appears to be enjoying her days in memory care. Stage 7 can be a rollercoaster. If you search this web site there are lots of message threads about Stage 7.