When did these things happen for your PWD?

I know it varies greatly per person, but my grandmother did not get delusional nor have hallucinations at all. If I remember correctly, she was forgetting members of the family about middle of stage 5, and incontinence at stage 6. She started wrapping things in tissues and hiding them a bit earlier than that, however, about maybe the end of stage 4 into beginning stage 5.

just background - I was about 8, and Grandmother was early-onset, and I remember very fidgety. We made sure she had a cloth hanky that she could wrap through her fingers and hand, and pace around, and wrap that hanky. It gave her hands something to do. We lost her when I was almost 17.

Like SusanB, my mom didn’t have delusions or hallucinations, nor aggression. Beginning stage 6, I think, incontinence was more of an issue and only knowing I was her person. She didn’t remember my name for awhile but still knew I was her daughter until that time. I didn’t journal everything, wish I would have, so I’m just trying to remember, of all things… ha.

@AlzWife2023,

Until recently, MIL had characteristics from stages 4, early 5 and late 5.

What was helpful for me was to gauge her by how she reacts in unfamiliar settings or in situations requiring her to make simple decisions.

So at home or on the phone with familiar people making small talk, she was stage 3/4. But when we went to an office supply store so she could purchase a binder (her request) she was unable to make a simple choice, asked the same question back to back to back and was completely overwhelmed.

MIL is 91. Was formally diagnosed about 18 months ago with mixed dementia at middle stage and seems to be going through the stages at a steady pace. To date, she’s still continent. When diagnosed she could do all ADLS but no IADLS. Currently, she needs assistance with all ADLS except going to the bathroom.

Two things that stand out to me as subtle signs of diminished cognition. Her plate is often a mess. She still uses utensils but after eating, her plate looks like that of a toddler with food particles everywhere.

And she was an amazing folder of clothes. She’d literally rub out all the wrinkles and precisely fold clothes into tiny squares. Now, her folds are lopsided, occasionally socks are mismatched and her completed stacks are disorganized with underwear mixed in with kitchen towels.

It's such an individual thing.

My dad was a difficult character pre-dementia. With dementia he was a sort of magnified version of that in terms behaviors. For him, semi-incontinence set in a little on the early side in part because of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. That said, he knew his immediate family throughout the disease and maintained conversational speech as well even if the content was completely untrue. I had a long, convoluted discussion about my sister visiting him hours before he died from complications of aspiration pneumonia. She'd been dead 25 years at that point.

My aunt never became aggressive or even agitated. She'd been a gentle soul before diagnosis and remained one until her death. She had hallucinations and delusions, but frankly, they were lovely and pleasant for her. She believed, for instance, that her MCF was the married student housing at Rutgers circa 1949 and that her late husband was on maneuvers as a naval reservist. She'd look out the window of her room and see the view of Casco Bay from her cottage rather than the woods that were actually there.

HB