Last week my husband told me he's having episodes (lasting 15-30 minutes) where he feels like his brain is fogged. He doesn't lose consciousness or anything, but just feels like he isn't thinking well, isn't certain he connects the dots so to speak. He was dxed MCI last summer and has been on Aricept for 7 months. We went to see the neurologist who said, "it's hard to explain these types of events so let's not worry about them unless you lose ability to function during the episodes". I'm wondering if we should get a 2nd opinion since this is new?
The good news is that although my husband had to ask me his doctor's name and where his office building was, he drove himself there and met me promptly, and once we got in the building he took my hand and confidently found his way to the dr's office!!! This is the first time he could do that, I've had to guide him to all the other visits there as he could never remember or follow the signs' directions...I think the Aricept is really helping!
I know driving with dementia/AD is such a hard thing to understand. But, really, if someone has episodes and feels like his brain is fogged for 15-30 minutes, he should not be driving. Have you talked to the doc about this.
My husband has said that he feels like his morning pills (one aricept, one namenda) have caused him to be in a fog for a couple hours or so. He said this was not the case with his evening pills (one namenda, one bp pill,) so I wondered whether the aricept had a strange, temporary effect when he took it. He has not mentioned that in the past few months. Hard to say though, especially when the report comes from a person who isn't thinking all that well in the first place.
to Bettyhere, yes i asked the doc specifically about driving but he said, "If he feels foggy he can pull over if he needs to." Like I said, I wonder if we should ask another doctor. What if it's not AD/MCI, but something else...
A second opinion never hurts, it could be something else, even the meds as mentioned, and worth looking into--one way or the other. If I were driving and felt foggy or light-headed, whatever, I like to think I'd have the ability to pull over until it passed. I'm just not sure someone w/dementia would be able to do the same thing. It's a tough road no matter what we do.
JustThinking, My husband often had these spells of "being in a fog" as he described them, always in the mornings and after lying down for an hour or two he would be fine. If I recall correctly it was while adjusting to medication. He has has had no such episodes for a long time despite being on Reminyl and Ebixa or while taking part in the Alzhemed trial. It might be worth asking the doctor if he would switch from Aricept to one of the other similar drugs such as Exelon or Reminyl( not sure if it's called that in the U.S. as the names are often different in Canada- I believe Ebixa is called Namenda in the U.S,).