Before this message board, I was under the assumption that AD was family related and just in old people. I am now enlightened that is many times strikes younger people as well as old and it is not necessarily family related.
My husbands family just includes a sister with a dementia and his parents lived in their 90's without it (except for age related memory problems). I don't know of any dementia in my family. Therefore, I used to think we didn't have to worry about the disease. I am sure many, many other people are under the same umbrella of denial because there is non in their immediate family. I now find myself checking out friends behavior, wondering if they may have early AD.
I find myself doing that too. The one neighbor who actually has the disease seems perfectly normal to me, although I know I'm not seeing the things his wife is seeing and he is on the dementia medications. A second neighbor, who probably doesn't have the disease, looks not quite right.
...[sigh]...
I also spotted my son-in-law's father within a few minutes in the same room with him. I've never spent a lot of time with him because he and his wife retired in Honduras. Sure enough, the family came to the same conclusion. I shared medication advice with my daughter so he can go on dementia drugs. They are hoping they will be able to get him on the generic drug simply because generics are much easier to come by in Honduras.
Imohr, I only wish that all Doctors understood your statement. Don't get me wrong, I think they are getting better at understanding that AD can effect younger people. But honestly I still think your statement needs to be tattooed on Doctors butt's, so that when younger people come to them for issues that they don't overlook it just because the person sitting in front of them is not old. When Dh started having issues they kept saying it's this or that. Not wanting to even go towards an AD diagnosis because of his age. So I treaded water for a few more years until finally a doctor gave him a mini mental then and only then did they even consider having further testing. Very frustrating!
As far as checking out others, oh yeah it's like my Gay radar, LOL.......... I am a Hairstylist and for years I have been able to spot a gay person from a block away because I have sooooo many gay friends. I am now picking up the AD radar of wonder...................
In one of my talks, I said to people - Contact a neurologist before a divorce lawyer. When AD hits young people, the personality change, indifference, forgetfulness, irrational behavior, are often chalked up to depression, menopause (women), mid life crisis (men) or just plain meanness, and divorce is often the result. Doctors HAVE to be educated about EOAD. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the young political aides when Tony talked about his 43 year old wife having AD. They were astounded.
Boy did you hit the nail on the head. Jim and I were on our way to separation and marriage counseling when he became ill and was hospitalized with COPD. The dr there agreed with me, (finally someone was listening) and contacted a neurologist. All this lead to "our" dx. We've only been married 5 1/2 yrs and I have watched him change for 5 of those years. Yes, I saw/see infifference, forgetfulness, depression, withdrawal, personality changes, and so much more. My gut told me last Nov that he had AD. So sad that I was right.
I don't know if was because of my Dh's age or that he is a pretty mellow kinda guy that we didn't have some of the same issues that others do before diagnosis like anger or depression. It was like real doooozie weird things, like pulling over at the side of the road and getting out of the truck without putting it into park. Putting a pair of jeans over top of another pair of jeans. Taking a blow torch to our freezer (when a hot rag or even a blow dryer would have unstuck that ziplock baggie). Just a few of the weird things that made me think what?? Thankfully we haven't had to deal with some of the issues that others have had to. It's almost as if he just stepped deep into AD and skipped the beginning.
I get cranky when I think back to how hard I had to plead with them to help him, which we all know with a AD diagnosis there really is no help other than staveing it off, or at least they think they are. But I always have to remember that not that long ago (60's) the still put women in mental institutions for menopause! So we have come a loooooooooog way baby! I pray that they will get the education as well as the means to slow if not stop this horrible disease. Rk
In the 60's they also put people with dementia into mental institutions--it happened to my husband's Dad. They didn't know how to deal with the aggression--either inside the facility or on the outside.
On the original subject, yesterday I was on a panel at a kickoff ceremony for a new coalition to try to address the nursing shortage. Beforehand, I was chatting with a woman from AARP (someone at a pretty high level). When she asked why I was participating as a representative of the Alz Assn, I said I was a family caregiver--my husband was standing right next to me. Of course, she asked if I was taking care of one of my parents. You should have seen the look on her face when I replied, no, Steve has AD. Shock would describe it. And this was from someone who should know better.
They put my FIL in the state hospital for three weeks. He thought the lady across the hall from his was his wife who had just passed away. They had been married 63 years. They kept him for 3 weeks and then found out he had prostate cancer and sent him to the hospital. They kept him in the hospital until we found a room for him in a NH. That was in June 1988. Times are changing but not fast enough.
You know, I just thought that many years ago when younger people would do strange things, act with aggression and anger, have personality changes they not only would put them in mental institutions but they would give the shock treatments! Probably many of these had AD.