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  1.  
    Alzheimer's is a fatal disease we are told. Why? My spouse is in a dementia ALF and though most residents are in never-never land physically they don't change. Everyone is pale and shuffle. They continue to eat independently. What do most die of? Sorry if I upset anyone.
    • CommentAuthorSunshyne
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    It is my understanding that, eventually, enough damage is done to the brain that it is not able to control essential bodily functions.

    However, AD patients usually die of something else before that happens ... often, pneumonia caused by aspiration of food or beverages because they no longer swallow properly. That's how my mother died. Dying from pneumonia can be very peaceful. It used to be called "the old man's friend" because of how gently it took someone who had long been disabled by disease.
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      CommentAuthormary75*
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008 edited
     
    deleted
    • CommentAuthortherrja*
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    I just asked the nursing staff about this at the facility my husband is at. The reason that Alzheimer's patients tend to die of pneumonia due to aspiration is that the brain controls a "flap" that prevents food from going to the lungs when swollowing. This function eventually becomes impaired by Alzheimer's and the flap no longer works correctly causing food/liquid to go to the lungs. In the lungs, this causes infections, fluid buildups, etc. There is no cure for this problem. Once/if a person starts down this path, it is only a question of how much time they have left.
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      CommentAuthorStarling*
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    I've read on another site that they also die because the mind forgets how to tell th body to digest food. Even if they are eating, they can't digest what they eat. If they are put on a feeding tube, it still doesn't work because the body won't digest that food either.

    This is a death at the last point in the disease obviously since either pneumonia or not eating will happen first.
    • CommentAuthorfrand*
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    After 65 the pneumonia vaccine is available. Does that mean that a person who had the vaccine CAN'T die of pneumonia?
  2.  
    I'm afraid not. There are hundreds of types of pneumonia, and the shot is only for one. I found that out with my mother. She had pneumonia 5 times and had had 2 shots!
  3.  
    frand-the pneumonia vaccine works against bacterial pneumonia. It is aspiration pneumonia that we are dealing with. I know this is how most patients die-I first asked the question just to see what others think and feel. Can they die of a broken heart?
    • CommentAuthorAdmin
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    The brain controls every bodily function, inlcuding breathing and swallowing. When the brain deteriorates to the point that it cannot control those functions, death occurs. However, chances are that the person will die of something else first, just like all of us will.

    joang
    • CommentAuthorfrand*
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    Thanks for the pneumonia information. I was concerned about that vaccine working! Pneumonia seems a more humane way to die than from end stage AD.
  4.  
    The brain 'forgets' how to control our automatic functions, breathing, heart beat, circulation, swallowing saliva, etc. My husband simply stopped breathing, It was very peaceful, he was given oxygen but did not seem to be in distress, I think by that time he was comatose, so somthing else may have been happening. If he did not have AD, he would still be breathing, so I believe that AD is fatal. It takes different forms, aspiration pneumonia being one, but it is terminal.
    • CommentAuthorSunshyne
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    Can they die of a broken heart?

    bluedaze, that's a very interesting question, and one I think "science" doesn't know the answer to. Many people from many cultures believe that people who are grieving, deeply, can "will" themselves not to live any longer. I haven't ever heard it happening with regard to AD, but who knows?

    I believe my father died from grieving for my mother, after she died from "pneumonia" associated with AD. I know that isn't what's on the death certificate but still... if he didn't die from a broken heart, he certainly welcomed death with open arms and did not struggle to live.
  5.  
    I think it's possible.
    • CommentAuthorAdmin
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2008
     
    My uncle died unexpectedly, and my aunt was never able to adjust to life without him. She was the one who had lifelong health problems, and everyone always thought she would go first, including her. After a few years, she just refused any more treatment, and within a few weeks, she died. In my mind, she died of a broken heart.

    joang
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      CommentAuthorStarling*
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2008
     
    In 1946 my father died from a heart attack. I'm certain he actually died from a combination of survivor's syndrome and a broken heart. By January of 1946 the truth that entire villages in the Balkans had been carried away and murdered had become obvious. And that part of the family that he hadn't bullied into coming to the US were all dead and gone forever was more than he could take. He had been safe in the US and the guilt killed him.

    There is a lesson there for all of us. Guilt is a big part of caregiving. Our guilt is as illogical as my father's was. And it can kill us.

    No big surprise that having a horrible terminal illness can kill someone too just because they can't take it anymore.
    • CommentAuthorAnna
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2008
     
    I don't think my DH will die form a broken heart due to AD.He's in denial and really seems to be quite content provided he can do what he wants to do.But I think that is his personality. I know if had AD I would have been planning, researching, discussing, keeping journals ,attending meetings.And then pray to die when I was no longer enjoying life.
    • CommentAuthordivvi*
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2008
     
    I also believe aspiration pneumonia is what takes most of AD patients in the end when swallowing becomes impaired. in our case, having my DH on life supporting pills for high blood pressure may come in play, if things got REALLY bad i think we would consider using that as an end instead of a more painful alternative
    and making it an easier way to let go. none of the options are easy to think about. divvi.
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      CommentAuthorStarling*
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2008
     
    Since we are talking about the unthinkable. My husband has a pacemaker, and at some point the battery will need to be replaced. It probably won't; he couldn't handle the anesthesia anyway. He is on blood thinners, high blood pressure meds and meds for diabetes. At some point I'll either pull them all through Hospice, or he won't be able to go in for blood tests and that will be that. If he gets pneumonia there will be no antibiotics. I've read enough online that there will be no respirators or feeding tubes. When dementia patients get bad enough to need them, they don't work anyway.

    He signed a Patient Advocacy document that requires that I do most of this anyway. Although he signed it this year, he had made a Living Will back in California when he was more than able to make these decisions and that document said the same things with different words. We got new documents only because we were in a new state. I know what he wanted when he WAS in his right mind.
    • CommentAuthortherrja*
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2008
     
    I am not so sure that death is really unthinkable when they hit a certain point. If my husband could step outside of his body and see how he is, he would say "take me out and shoot me". How he is now, is not what he viewed life being all about. He can no longer golf, he can't go out to eat with friends, he can no longer do anything with any of his hobbies. The only blessing I see is that his mind has gone before his body. He is one of those rare individuals whose mind is a lot further along with the disease than his body. He is mentally about a 1 year old with an occassional flash of lucidity but he is still up walking around, pushing furniture around and moving things. My hope is that I am strong enough to let him go when it is time.
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      CommentAuthorStarling*
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2008
     
    I tend to be a bit harsher sounding about this than I might need to be. My sister and I made the hard decision about our mother back in 83 when if you let them put someone on a respirator it took a judge to get them off it. We looked at what they had found in testing at the hospital and realized we could let her have an easy death now, or we could force her to stay alive and die in agony in 6 months. We made the hard decision and allowed the pneumonia to take her gently. They were probably giving her antibiotics. They never asked us about that. There was only limited Hospice then. They never offered that either. We made the decision alone and without any support.

    My husband's mind is further along than his body as well. He has other diseases, but did shockingly well on his stress test in January.

    We are going to his neurologist tomorrow. He doesn't remember him. We went to the dentist yesterday. He took it for granted that we were going to our family doctor.
    • CommentAuthorSunshyne
    • CommentTimeMay 22nd 2008 edited
     
    Starling, I understand so well what you mean, and am so very sorry for the pain you've gone through.

    My first husband died of cancer back in the days you're talking about. My sister had died of complications from Crohn's disease a year before. She was in a coma, her brain was severely atrophied, and yet she had been put on a respirator -- against my parents' wishes -- and took many months to die. I learned my lessons from that, and did what I had to do for my husband by keeping my mouth shut. There was so much fear back then about who might be prosecuted if a patient was "allowed" to die. The most caring and courageous of the medical professionals would simply look the other way if the family chose to ignore recommendations for extreme measures. There was no one to talk to about what those decisions might mean. Silence was protection, for everyone. But it was so incredibly lonely.

    You don't sound harsh to me. You sound like someone who has been there. You sound brave, and strong, and very caring.
    • CommentAuthorFLgirl*
    • CommentTimeMay 22nd 2008
     
    When my husband's brother was bad with Alzheimer's, my husband kept telling me that if he got like that I should "pull the plug". Well, he's worse than his brother and there's no plug to pull so we're just suffering through each new symptom that comes. If he could see what has happened to him, he would be horrified, but of course, he doesn't know!
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      CommentAuthorchris r*
    • CommentTimeMay 25th 2008
     
    My MIL died of pneumonia in 1991 after 6 years in a nursing home with AD. My DH knows he has the disease, but actually doesn't accept it, and of course, he's on Exelon, which thank goodness, slows it down. But, I pray that he goes as easily as his mother did when it's his time. And I'm happy to see that the shot won't prevent that. (Awful thing to say, but you have to be realistic. and this is a realistic topic.)