Thursday, April 09, 2009 neisha asks

Q: Is improvement possible?

I understand there is no cure for alzheimer's so don't think that I have false hope. My father was diagnosed with alz. 4 years ago. In December he really started going down hill. For the past two months he could not be left alone. He had an episode where he left the house at night and got lost in the woods, hit my brother with his fist numerous times, would speak in gibberish, saw people and animals that weren't there..........you know all of that "stage 6" stuff. For a week now he has been WONDERFUL. It has been like going back in time a couple of years. He is a little more irratable and paranoid than he was years ago but other than that it is amazing. There have been NO changes in medicine or routine. Just last week he didn't recognize the house he has lived in for 35 years and now he is doing chores, making phone calls, carrying on lucid conversations. Do AD patients do this extreme of a turn around sometimes? I keep waiting for it to "snap off" again and then be full blown AD.

That is one thing that is soooo frustrating about this disease...............you never know what to expect!

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Answers (3)

Carol Bradley Bursack, Health Guide

4/ 9/09 5:12pm

Exactly. You never know what to expect. This seems pretty dramatic, but having them "come out of it" for brief periods is quite common. For this "good stretch" to continue this long seems unusual. Were there no changes in any medications? Sometimes something simple, like an allergy medication, can cause symptoms to change. If he went off of anything at all, that could explain something to you.

Enjoy this "good" time. You may want to ask a doctor about it if it lasts. It would be good to know what is at the bottom of it.

Blessings,

Carol

Dorian Martin, Health Guide

4/10/09 11:09am

Hi, Neisha,

You're right - Alzheimer's isn't a linear disease, so you never know waht to expect. One of the things we found with Mom was that if she had visitors (and we told her about their visit for several days prior to the visit), she would muster her mental capacity and be able to respond in a normal fashion. In fact, this happened once and my friends questioned whether Mom should even been in a locked facility because she was so "with it". But the next day (or soon thereafter), Mom was mentally frazzled and the symptoms of dementia again were showing. So perhaps your father had something (a visit, an activity) that he was anticipating and that has kept him focused mentally? Just a thought.

Take care and keep us posted!

Dorian

4/10/09 6:15pm

I think for Alzheimer's, improvement or cure is certainly not there right now. But I feel that instead of the so-called improvement I saw from my father-in-law, I see that maybe he is not that sick as we thought he was. It is like up and down at times although it goes downhill slowly every year. Sometimes the brain acts funny - it comes and goes. So when the cognition level is not that bad, things can still come back and he can still remember some old stuff at times. It is like he needs reminder or stimulation to bring that old memory out to the front. He never lost some of the memory. Sometimes he is like a bear - hibernate in the winter and wake up in the summer!

Never assume that the elderly is sicker than he really is!

Take care,

Nina

Q: Is improvement possible?

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