DW has fallen 3 times in the past 24 hours. Is balance an issue with AD? She has had motor skill issues for sometime. That is why she can not drive. Not good Hand Eye coordination.
Moorsb, my DH's problems began with motor issues. He had a shuffling gait starting at least 9 years ago and it has progressed to where he must use a walker or I push him in a transport chair. He has a huge fear of falling which I suppose is due to his realization of a balance issue. Don't think it affects all patients but it's fairly common.
G falls on a regular basis with no obvious physical reason according to his Docs. He is a mess of black and blue, and it is getting much worse daily. i have seen such a huge decline in the past two weeks..we can't have a wheelchair situation in our home..too many stairs. I am getting a tad panicked. We just completed all the new stairway railings and bathroom grab bars yesterday, but now he is having a hard time getting up out of any sitting situation. He is an accident about to happen at any moment. I have zero clue what to do..and most of it is brought on by the way he uses his body, but knowing that doesn't help the situation.
Kathi37 It sounds like a NH is not too far off for your situation. Our home was bought will the end game in mind, no stairs and wide door ways. I think loosing weight would help. We both need to loose some lbs and that I think will help.
AZ eventually affects the muscles, the brain stops telling them what to do. The legs won't work, the throat won't work and the eyelids won't be able to open. It is a horrible disease and living with it and through it is so devastating. My dh had lost a lot of weight but he still wound up not able to stand because of the muscles not working.
My DH also has balance issues off and on. I keep his walker in the house just in case. and I keep a small one in the car for the same reason. My car is not big enough to carry a wheelchair but that might be my next step.
I'm going to ask an ugly question. At what point in the disease do the falls, and the general muscles not working, occur? Is it a stage 7 symptom? Does it happen close to the end? Or can it go on for years?
Well, Starling, for us the falling was the beginning of Stage 7....he was walking and pacing for hours at a time and would fall and break his nose. The next thing you know he walked to the dining room for dinner and could not walk back to his room. He went to the bed and remained there for another five years until he died. His muscles atrophied and he had contractures in his arms. This disease is not for sissies, that is for sure.....
I really don't know what stage G is...he has FTD, and I think that is different. He could do most things by himself if the balance weren't an issue....such as cut down a tree in our front yard ! Which he did this week with a small limb saw (not with my knowledge)...of course, he can't clean up the mess he made. :-(
We built this house 35 years ago when we were invincible.
Balance should also be checked out by checking what medications your DW is on, (often a side effect) any inner ear problems as well as AD. It probably does not define exactly what stage our LO's are at but what part of the brain has been effected.
One autopsy study of dementia patients showed more with both Alzheimer tangles and Lewy Bodies (characteristic of Lewy Body Dementia) than either one alone. Balance issues and shuffling are characteristic of Lewy Body Dementia. My husband had balance issues as a very early symptom, though he isn't yet to the point of falling regularly.
I have the feeling that it's one of those things that depends on the person - different parts of the brain affected at different times with different people, just as language ability is different.
My DH started having the problem of just all of a sudden dropping and not being able to get up about three weeks before he passed. At this time he never slept, was always awake, then a week later he couldn't open his eyes at all anymore. That lasted about a week, and then he passed. rarely said a thing when his eyes closed. The stages came so quickly that I didn't really stage them.
My DH, Dxd with Vascular Dementia and entering Stage 5, ws treated with PT for balance issues after bing released fromthe hospital in Sept 2006. They gave him a 4 footed cane and a rolling walker. He rarely uses the walker at this point but is using the cane more and more. Until about a month ago, he would board the GoBus by climbing the steps of the regular entrance. Now he's using the lift to board and to disembark. He is in early Stage 6.
Wierd finding your own post from 2 yrs ago. It seems that a switch has gone off and balance is a major issue. She fell last night in the bathroom with tile floor. I think when she goes to sit down on the toilet she leans forward and then just fell forward onto the floor. I am not sure what that means now. Put her in a hospital bed and depends? I have not slept all night because I am afraid that she might get up and try to goto the bathroom by herself and do it again. I could not get her up off the tile floor, I had her crawl into bedroom and near the bed. I still could not get her into bed, she was too confused and had no balance. I called hospice and they sent someone over to help me get her into bed around 11:30 last night. I am thinking big changes are getting ready to take place. The nurse said that she may have a uti and they will test her today. It is really odd because we just signed up with hospice yesterday.
Bob...so sorry to hear about this... My dw did the same thing a while ago, and although she was not very heavy, I could not pick her up...I had a small inflatable air mattress, so I put it under her, and inflated it while she layed on it. I also took the frame off the king size bed, and lowered the bed so that she could get into it. I did not get a hospital bed because she did not want the bedrails...so I always rolled her to the center of the bed, and she did not fall out of it because she would have to roll over too far...I also got a portable chair toilet so that I did not have to carry her to the bathroom, and she was not incontinent until she could no longer stand up. Changes like this seem to happen overnight, and sometimes the disease seems to speed up quickly. I wish I had some advice to give you but unfortunately, you will have to figure out what works best for you, and adapt too the changes.
Bob---another help might be rails at the sides of the toilet. They can be swung away as needed, but work like chair arms to steady the user as they sit or rise. Anotherhelpmight be to install a raised seat, so the distance is less. Wewere told to install both to address this.
My mom started to have gait issues in the later stages of the disease. My DH has issues too as he grasps everything as he goes along, stops to rest too. In his case it is hard to determine if it is neuropathy from diabetes or the ALZ or both. I think some of both though he is not in late stages. He can dress himself, feed himself, and many other things..even balance the check book..however his ability there is an anomaly. He test in the 1% range high of all healthy people in spatial and numerical areas...the doctors attribute it to his unusually finely tuned eye hand coordination..he held the record for years for air gunnery out of flight schools..and was an attack pilot in Viet Nam. But the area of weakness he has are in respect to staying focused, though he understands what you are a telling him and he has opinions, and of course the grooming areas of dressing, brushing teeth etc..so many of the other tell tale signs of the disease.
Each person is different and I suspect depending upon other illness or health issues the gait could be affected sooner rather than later.