A few months ago, two days before his birthday, my DH refused to walk anymore. His hospice nurse asked me when our wedding anniversary is and indicated it was very likely there would be another steep decline at that time. She said that in her experience, she has often seen Alz patients decline on important dates in their lives. I have never heard this before and wondered if any of you can verify her theory. Being in stage 7, I am wondering how my DH could possibly know when any important date was approaching. Does this mean I should dread our anniversary which is coming up next month?
No disrespect to the Hospice nurse, but that makes no sense to me. In stage 7, they often don't know who their family members are, never mind anniversary dates. My husband is somewhere in the mid stages and functional. He doesn't even know what month it is most of the time.
As a nurse I have seen many terminal patients respond to key dates. As Joan says-I doubt this pertains to those with AD. Joan-what are you doing still up so late. You need your sleep for healing.
I know patients with some terminal diseases do wait for a certain date to come and go...but an ALZ pt stage 7?What is she nuts? My moderate level DH cant even tell you what day of the week it is let alone that it is our anniversary..he can tell you the date but if it were today he would not know it is today..to him it is in the future.
My DH is still in mid stage according to his neuro. Every day he asks what day it is or the date or both. Doesn't remember birthdays or anniversaries but does know his birthday is September not the date.
My DH, stage 5/6 doesn't know the date, the year or how old he is. We recently had our 50th wedding anniversary. He did not recognize himself or me in pictures. Even so, he went along with the dinner our children gave us.