I am new and curious when I read a thread to know what stage your LO is in. My Lo is pretty much stage 4 now. I know that no one is typical, but I would appreciate some feedback on your experiences in stage 4, and also some of you who post a lot, what stage your LO is in.
Hi Olive - my DH is stage 4+. His Neuro says 5, but he still functions fairly well. He's 63, and he doesn't drive anymore, but he has a bicycle to get around our condo complex (but he doesn't ride it much). He has very little short term memory. Forgets the names of kids and grandkids and pets. He can't work the stove, oven or microwave anymore, but that's probably a good thing at this point. He used to be a super active man, until about 1 year ago. Most days he just sits in front of the TV. I have just started having someone come in for 2 hours twice a week to make sure he's eating properly. I make him breakfast and lunch every day, but he seldom eats it. (I still have to work full time, so I'm gone from 6:15 - 6:oo Tuesday-Saturday). He sleeps alot, but my friends here tell me that is probably the meds he's taking. He takes Namenda and Celexa, plus cholesteral and bp meds. Although no 2 patients are the same, I hopet his helps a little bit. I'm sorry you have to be here, but I'm glad you are. Take good care :) ~Di
Your comments help me understand you all when I will read your posts. My LO is still in a mild stage. (early 4), so I have yet to experience the pain you are all going through. However, reading your wonderful expressions of ceaseless caregiving will help me tremendously as I continue down this path.
Art saw his PCP yesterday. The VA has a new 10 question evaluation they do and he scored a 25 - about the same he did when we saw the neurologist in January. He did order another neuropsych testing to see how depressed he is since he will never admit he is. I will say after finding out he scored a 25 (27 is normal), his mood has been much better. Even though he has had times, I do think he hasn't gone down any. I do notice he seems to be more alert and better short term memory when he takes the coconut/MCT oil. So it looks like for now he is still aMCI.
My H must be in mid to late stage 5 with maybe a bit of 6 thrown in. Actually, I'm not really sure. There are days when he's not so bad. And then there are days like this week when he doesn't even know what year it is, month or day. He can feed himself but if I don't fix something nourishing for him to eat, he either doesn't eat at all or eats all the cookies in the jar. He doesn't even make himself a sandwish or open a container of yogurt. I lay out his clothes. I give him a shampoo and shower about 3 times a week. So far,. he takes care of his teeth and bathroom.
He is 83 years old. I am 78. He was diagnosed with MCI in August 2003 and moderate AD in November 2004. He is on Nemando 2xdaily and the Exelon patch once a day.
Good luck to you and yours. You'll learn a lot here. I know I have.
Hello Olive, I am also pretty new to this. My wife is Kathryn. We were told she has early on-set ALZ last April 30th. Seems like forever ago now. She has all but one of the of level five, about three of level six and has started to to experience disruption changes in her normal sleep/waking cycle. For the last week or two she seems to be clearing her throat a lot and appears to be uncomfortable when she sallows. When I ask her if she has a sore throat, she says no that she feels fine. I'm not sure if this is the begining of one of stage seven or not. I am praying that it is not.
I am not sure what stage all this puts her in. I think maybe high five or very low stage six.
I've been saying early stage 6 for a while, but going to talk to and try out day care has made me aware that he is actually probably only late stage 5. The difference is that in stage 6 most of the symptoms are physical ones, and he doesn't have those.
He still takes very long walks, up to 2 hours, almost every day, and he comes home on his own. This has been going on since he stopped driving almost a year ago.
Anchor, it is possible that the throat clearing is allergies or asthma. I'm having throat clearing issues myself and I have both of those diseases. But no sore throat at all. Just this frog that gets better or worse depending on the weather.
My DH is probably stage 5. He eats all the time when he is not sleeping. he watches TV or has the the TV on. I doubt he is watching. He sleeps a lot in the daytime and equally as well at night. He has no interest in anything. I try to interest him in going with me on my errands to the library, drug store, etc.,but he is not interested. HE used to go the the Y with me, but lately says he can't, his hip or feet hurt. Yet, when we were at Duke for his last BAP infusion he told the he goes to the Y, does the treadmill and lifts weights. That made me laugh. His score is pretty stable around 20-22 for the last year. He is amazingly healthy, take razadyne, blood pressure med, cholesterol med, vitamin B,C,and D. He seems happy and should because he has no worries. He does not drive and only mentions it when he thinks I need him to drive me somewhere. God forbid that will ever happen. He has not driven since November and can't remember how to get anywhere.
That's what I am hoping. I have her a doctor's appointment for that and also to get some lady things done that are done on a regular basis that I didn't think of until I started looking around this site and I realized she needed them done.
I have that throat clearing myself--have for years. It is acid reflux and asthma. I have been taking the med in the a.m. with all the rest of it. I'm frightfully hoarse. I asked my dr last week about that. He told me to take the acid reflux med at night before I went to bed.
I do lots of throat clearing myself -- especially when I don't have anything else to do..... It feels like there's some thick mucus stuck back around where my nose joins my throat behind my soft palate and I keep on snorting and clearing my throat to no effect.
I expect it's related to age. I read somewhere that there are actually two different glands/processes at work in producing our mucus, one producing thick mucus and the other producing thin mucus, and they ideally combine to produce "just right mucus". But as we age, the guy that produces the thin mucus begins to decrease production, leaving older folks with a thick mucus problem. How about that Dr. marsh -- any truth to that?