My DH saw his neuro a few weeks ago and he got the usual mini mentals. According to the neuro he is still in the MILD stage of AD. I am not so sure, last week we were going for our flu shots and DH asked what our address was. He was writng it down as I was telling him then he asked what our phone number was and wrote that down. A couple of times he has said he'd told me something which he hadn't and then I have told him about 5 times that my appointment at 8.30am tomorrow is to see the surgeon who will be doing cataract surgery on me. He asked me if that was my afternoon appointment.... which is about my carotid arteries!!!! Then he asks if I have had cataract surgery before. When I said no he said he doesn't know what I have had or not had. I told him as far as I know you only have cataract surgery one time. I know his short term memory is getting worse but it gets so irritating repeating the same things several times and you know he still won't remember. All of this doesn't sound like the mild stage to me. Thanks for letting me vent.
Forgetting his address and phone number doesn't sound like mild to me either, but the rest of it sounds like what has gone on in my house for 4 years. In the previous blog section on the left side of the home page of the website - www.thealzheimerspouse.com- click on and read #17 and 137 about the repetitive questions that drive us CRAZY!!!
Jean21, as Starling and Sunshyne will tell you, those tests are great for some, but more intelligent people can pass those tests and be in Stage 5!! They are missing in the other areas that drive us crazy!
I just asked my husband about out address (only lived here 2 1/2 years and he doesn't know the new address). He did know our telephone number, however he can't write it or anything. Just makes squiggles. My husband would not know if I had cataract surgery but he would know if he had.
Jean21, when my husband went through the repeating/asking again and again stage, it drove me nuts too. At that time, I knew enough to joke to myself that at some point in the future, this will be "the good old days". I am not sure if I really believed it then, but that is exactly how it worked out. I would give just about anything to have my husband back in that stage because at least there were still lots of moments when we connected as a couple and in many ways he was still him.
Sometimes, I don't think it is just that they are forgetting that causes this behavior, I think that they know that their minds are becoming like swiss cheese and are reassuring themselves that you know the answers if a problem or question comes up. One thing that did help though was that I treated it like I do a person with a hearing loss. After the 2nd or 3rd repeat, I would say the answer a different way. That often made a huge difference in his understanding and he finally "got it". Sometimes the combination of words that we use to answer the questions is more than they can handle so saying it a different way often helps.
It is very frustrating. At times they seem so self-absorbed and self-centered. Sometimes it takes everything I have to remember this is a major part of my DH's symptoms. I try to answer each question as if it is the first time. Sometimes, I turn it into a private game by using a different inflection in my voice everytime I answer the same question over and over and over...I might put a different emphasis on a word or phrase. This sounds so silly, but sometimes it saves my sanity and it helps keep the edge of impatience out of my voice so he doesn't get his feelings hurt. It also challenges my creativity..lol!
The others are so right about the mini mental exams. My husband is clearly in stage 4 and only missed one question the last several times he took this test. My DH even gets creative about his answers. He gets so amused with the reactions of the medical professionals when he uses his "Five Dollar Words". It is a big game to him. This adds to my frustration with some of the medical experts who question his diagnosis. I usually ask them to wait 5 minutes and then ask him if he took the mini test already that day...Don't give him the test again. Just ask him if he already took the test that day...guess what the answer will be???
Thanks everyone for your input now if you would just give me some of you patience I would be fine! My DH missed one on the counting backwards by 7 and couldn't remember the 3 words he was told earlier and with the neuro saying he is still in the mild stage DH thinks he is fine and he won't get any worse. Can you believe he asked again 5 minutes ago where we go first in the morning. What is really annoying is when he asks me "Did you do such and such?" I feel like he is checking up on me and want to scream "I am not the one who can't remember" Like I posted on a thread a while ago...I don't think I am going to make it as a care giver at least not a very good one.
Wow, yes, you hit the nail on the head when you said you feel like he's checking up on you. To me, it feels like I'm being NAGGED to death. Did you do this? Did you do this? Did you do this? YES! I did it the first time you asked, and the answer isn't going to change no matter how many times you ask me. Of course, they can't help it - if they remembered they wouldn't ask, but it is one of those things that can drive us up a wall.
My DH has not done the repeating thing very much. Recently, he started asking the same question. I think you are all absolutely right about the mini-mental.; My DH has always been good at faking it so he goes all the time faking it. I think he does not repeat is split 50/50: (1) his natural reaction to problems is to be quiet (he was always the quiet child when he was a kid) and (2) he knows he doesn't know so he fakes knowing so no one else knows that he doesn't know (he's been doing this his whole life). It definitely makes diagnosis a real challenge!
I came to hate mini-mental test. My husband would score high, so the Neurologist kept saying it's not Alzheimer's, just mild dementia. I kept asking, why he was declining each month then? I always felt the doctor thought I was imagining things, actually, I begin the think I was too.
Some of the excuses when they don't know things are also a dead giveaway. If they "don't care to know" things like their address or phone numbers. Or they tell you that "it isn't important to me", that alone is a dead giveaway that there is dementia.
Oh Starling, you are so right, My DH tells me he never cared about those things.... Excuse me, Your address!!! When the question is asked again and again, sometimes I just have to laugh, and he realizes I've told him the answer already, like 2 seconds ago.... We were at the VA to sign informed consent for Resveratrol, and as we sat there, he asked me where we were and why... over and over. So I laughed.. You know if you don't laugh you cry. And as for the mini mental, although he misses on some of the questions, he does spell world backwards, in fact, at this point, he probably spells it backwards better than forwards. And he can write a sentance, and read a command, and fold paper and draw a hexagon. he just doesn't know where he lives, where we are, or what season it is. Also not sure how old he is but he always lied anyway. So what does that mean.?
So what does that mean?...It means you are not crazy and you are not imagining things. My husband's memory specialist told us that a big part of their diagnosis is based on the family's observations and stories about their LO behaviors. So, even though he can pass the mini mental, there is other evidence just as important.