question

ldcs33

Have someone that was diagnosed with early signs of dementia and is currently on Aricept. But have noticed in the past several months her desire to do anything diminish. She sits home all the time, she will go do things but wants to be home by 7pm. Goes to bed at 7pm sleeps till 6am, goes outside for 30 min. nut then back home all day watching tv. Is this signs things are progressing

Damiross

A lot of people with dementia do develop routines that makes them feel better.

RMremdler

My husband has been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and is increasingly settling into rigid routines. Whenever there is a deviation, he becomes noticeably more anxious. It was suggested he may have depression but he was screened for that and not the case.

H1235

Welcome. A lack of interest or motivation to do things is common. She may also be finding that some activities are more difficult for her. This might not be noticeable to you. She might be having trouble following conversations with several people in a group, a menu at a restaurant can be overwhelming, books might be too hard to follow and she could be struggling just a bit with previous hobbies. Even in the early stages she might have just enough of an issue to discourage her from these activities. She may feel embarrassed or afraid she will mess up in front of others. It’s hard to really know. If she is home alone, it might be time to consider additional care options.

Maru

Eleven hours sleep seems like excessive for someone in the early stages. While the apathy could be normal progression, together with the long sleep schedule suggests that she may be depressed. Depression is not uncommon in PWD.

Michele P

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/77484/question

I would speak to her neurologist about medication. A geriatric psychiatrist would be your best option to diagnose the problem and prescribe medication. It sounds like depression which is not uncommon with this disease.

MN Chickadee

Yes, it's common to lose motivation to do things as the brain chemistry changes. Their skills are also changing, so it compounds things. And routine is very important do a PWD. It's sad to see their world shrink and their light start to dim, but to some degree it's just normal. She may do better with someone else starting things for her. Laying out a craft or activity, saying lets go for a walk now etc. Adult day care was very helpful for us, it got mom out of the house doing things she could manage.

Wednesday

My MIL will not do anything at all, all day long. She eats, is given her meds, sits on the couch wrapped up in multiple blankets like it's an Ice Age when it'll be 95 degrees outside, naps, and goes to bed once it's dark. She leaves the house with us to get her hair done every other week, to go to medical/dental appointments, and to eat out for breakfast on Saturday mornings.

She won't watch TV, sit on our porch in nice weather, flip through a magazine, listen to music, look at pictures in an album or read her Bible. Minor chores to "help" (i.e. busywork to keep her occupied) are right out; she's retired, you know. We both still work so we work in separate rooms and she is bored to tears and complains endlessly about being lonely. I get that she literally can't read any more or keep track of a story but I can't fix that for her. She hates the pets and kicks out at them and shoos them away. Guess that unconditional love is annoying to her.

Every two hours she wants a meal. I'm pretty sure it's her way of telling time. Every suggestion to help her boredom is refused. When we do sit with her after work, she has nothing much to say.

It sounds awful, but we mostly don't try hard to change her mood any longer. We can barely get her cooperation to handle her physical needs. Giving her what she thinks will make her happy would make us miserable, broke 'cause we wouldn't be working, and would kill her quickly because people in kidney failure can't survive on Chick-Fil-A milkshakes and Milk of Magnesia.

I'm hoping that when the day comes when she has to move to a facility, she'll actually end up liking it. It will remove the crutch of "my people take care of me" that isn't working for any of us.