Where is my…
This is not so much memory related but more eyesight and perception. Trying to wrap my head around it. In the last few months, my DH cannot see items he’s looking for and are in front of him. A perfect example today was him looking for his eyeglasses. They were on the dining table in front of him and he did not see them. We worked on it together and helped him slow down and guided him to scan the table in an orderly fashion. Eventually he saw them. My question is, if you’ve experienced this with your LO, how far into the disease were they and what other changes did they/you experience at the same time frame? Thanks!
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My husband can rarely find anything right now, even if it's right in front of his face. I'm not sure if it's that he doesn't see the item or if he is just losing track/forgetting what he's doing and not really focusing on the task. Doesn't matter if it's his glasses, something in the refrigerator or even our car parked outside the grocery store. He's currently in stage 5. He's also much more fearful now, I haven't been able to leave him home alone for about 9 months.
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sometimes they see the object but cannot recognize it. It’s futile to attempt to fix the problem by guiding and having your husband slow down to find the object. His brain isn’t working like it used to and you may find that what you are doing has the possibility of creating frustration for your husband. I just tell my DH I found the object he was looking for and leave it at that.
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Good points. Thank you.
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Murpc76
Maybe look up Posterior Cortical Atrophy. My DH just cannot recognize anything thus cannot find anything. The toothbrush and toothpaste have been strangers to him for a long time. I apply the paste to the brush always for him. His eyesight was extremely poor all his life. He had Cataract surgery to both eyes 8 years ago and then could see well in the distance without any correction. His near vision not so well, but much better than currently. He’s been getting regular eye injections since 2017 for a right eye vein occlusion and until 6 to 12 months ago could read the eye charts. They finally started to use single letter charts rather than rows of letters. Now, I am his eyes, ears and brain. He can see, but he can’t , if that even makes sense. It seems that that when he tries to pick up an item, he looks all around it and even feels all around for it but never hits the jackpot. He can even be touching it and still it’s not there. It is so frustrating. He is probably stage 6 and as his visual perception worsened so did his capability to follow simple direction. He is still very loving and humorous, but he has also started incessant humming, tapping, or making noises.3 -
This is
- An agnosia is a condition where damage to your brain keeps it from recognizing input from one of your senses, such as your vision, hearing, etc. Your sense works fine, but the part of your brain that processes the sensory information isn’t working.
They receive the visual signals, but the brain can no longer identify items.
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My DH has similar problems. It appears to be more of a cognitive challenge that he doesn't recognize the object. He sees things that aren't there. He hums and paces; packs his clothes and thinks we are somewhere other than home.
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My DW has similar issues. Don’t kid it can’t see or don’t recognize.
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after I told my DH’s Neurologist about him having problem with his eyes, she looked at his latest CT scan and said his symptoms were consistent with “Posterior Cortical Atrophy” the part of the brain that interprets what the eyes see. His eyes were fine per a visit to the Ophthalmologist. Talk to the Neurologist and if that part of the brain is affected, then Search for tips to help people with PCA.
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Yes, I think my spouse also has trouble with interpretation rather than vision. If I tell him something is on the kitchen counter, he'll walk into the kitchen, stare at the counter, then pick up various objects and ask, "Is this it?"
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I appreciate you all taking the time to respond. Any and all information is helpful in navigating through this.
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My DW does something similar, but I interpret the cause differently. She is losing the association between objects and their names. When I ask her to pick up her wallet, she also picks up various objects and asks, "Is this it?" She can't identify (for example) birds, so "yellow bird" is goldfinch, "tiny bird" is hummingbird. If I tell her something is next to the stove, she looks around the kitchen, unable to identify it.
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Not identifying things is called "agnosia".
Iris
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This is what I meant. He can't interpret what a word means or what an object is.
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Read about the 7 A's of Alzheimer's, it's enlightening.
Iris
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My mother used to be able to read the printed word(out loud for me) but was unable to comprehend what she was reading. It was confounding. I would tell her to look at her calendar about a doctor appt for example. She would read it for me over the phone + then couldn’t tell me the date of her appointment even though she had just read it.
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I am wondering if this is a new behavior that my wife has just started in the last few weeks. One day she asked for a glass of wine. I was in the middle of preparing dinner so I told her the wine bottle was in the fridge. She was able to get the bottle but did not know where the glasses were so I got one out for her. When I looked over, she had poured the wine into an open bag of flour that I was using to make a sauce for dinner.
I was shocked but realized that this was something different and did not make a big deal out of it. She had no acknowledgement that anything was wrong.
I will mention this to her physician but I doubt there is nothing to take action on — just an advancement of the disease.
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Commonly Used Abbreviations
DH = Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife, Darling Wife
LO = Loved One
ES = Early Stage
EO = Early Onset
FTD = Frontotemporal Dementia
VD = Vascular Dementia
MC = Memory Care
AL = Assisted Living
POA = Power of Attorney
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