We just got back from his 6 month checkup. Even though I knew it was true, it was so hard to have the doctor say he sees some definite decline. He says he is in the "middle stages" , for me, when I read carefully, he seems truly in stage 5, not 4.
Anyway, he is upping his Aricept from 5 mg to 10 mg. Anything anybody thinks I should know? I am a little apprehensive, he gets gassy from that pill, he does sleep more which I don't mind. If it makes him lose bowel control I am keeping him on the low dose.
Maybe there is a thread on this I will look around.
some here have had issues with aricept and bowel issues. but i think its worth it to give it a shot to see and hope it helps. and just in case make sure you get a very good mattress pad for that new pillowtop.. grin. many of us used aricept at higher doses for years without incidence. my DH used it several years at 10mgx2/day until past the mid stages. the reminyl made him sick so we gave that up as well but after years on it as well. you never know how they will respond unless you try. many here have success.
Well of course I found all the threads on anything you would want to know about aricept.
This place is a palace of information for dementia, too bad someone could not profit on it...alot has gone in to this. What manual or doctor or even a novel, could match all the information that is here?
Thanks divvi, yes I read some of your posts there too. Appreciate your input. If he gets runs or loses control, I will contact the doctor right away. It is tough enough, we are not at the "diaper" stage yet and I don't want it to come..
I think I should have bought a better mattress pad. They sold me one with the bed, assuring me it was water resistant, but I think what we are looking for here is water PROOF
My DH tales 10mg.aricept twice a day.Also Namenda.Have had no problems.But I think it is no longer doing any good,can't decide if I should continue it or gradually have him go off.
yhouniey, my DH is also on Aricept (only once a day) & Namenda (twice a day) & he has been on them for almost 6 years. I, like you, don’t know if they are still effective, but I keep him on them anyway. About a year ago I ran out of the Namenda so I decided to try him without it & after a little more than a week he became agitated. I of course came here & was advised to start him back on it. I did & he calmed down. In the discussions here about Aricept & Namenda it was mentioned that Namenda does help with aggression & agitation in some cses. So that is my reasoning for keeping him on it.
Some spice can't take Aricept because of stomach issues. There is Razadyne, which my husband was put on for that reason, and it is the same medication but easier on the stomach. He did very well on it and went from 5 to 10 to 20, I think, over the course of AD, and, Namenda was added as well. If your husband has stomach issues, ask your doctor to switch to Razadyne. This way you can use the mg needed to enable him to continue to function longer.
I kept my husband on both until he was bed bound in late stage 7.
My Dh started on 5mg then went on to 10mg Aricept. He had to go for the memory test thing and he failed to get the right numbers needed to get the Aricept on the Gov. list at a fraction of the real price, so Dr said it can't be helping him, so take him off it . Then she put him on Resperidal for his agression, raging and agitation , which at first seemed to work then after a couple of weeks I noticed within an hour of taking the med, he was worse, we even had an incident with a knife, he was going to stick into himself, I rang our local Dr and he said stop it at once..he gave us Seroquel to try , but I notice as soon as he came off resperidal for a couple of days, he was a lot calmer, so I put off giving him the Seroquel, and I'm amazed how much calmer he's been, so I think I'll leave it at no meds for now.... I must add though that his memory is so bad, down to 1-2 minutes, has no concept of where he is, thinks we are on holidays, and wants to go home. Does not remember that we built our house 16 yrs ago.
There is a generic Aricept, it is a fraction of the cost. Our neuro took Jim off Aricept and Namenda since he had been them for 6 years. There has been decline but no way of knowing if it's the disease or off meds.....how do you know?
Coco...Don't know if you have been to the Fisher Alzheimer site or not. It has the best descriptions of the various stages of Alz. that I haver seen. Even gives you the approx. lenght of time in each of these stages and has sub stages also. My dh is stage 5 with just a few of stage 6. Just go to goggle and type in: Fisher Stages of Alzheimer....you should be able to find it realy easy. They use the 7 stages.
Yes great site JudithKB, and it definetely reads as stage 5. When his doctor said "Moderate", well it matches with stage 5. As I was reading I asked him kindly, some questions that they mentioned on there. He could count back in twos from 20 a bit, but then lost it at 10 and 6 skipping them. I thought that was pretty good.
Then I asked him who the President is, and first he said Nixon, !! Then he said Clinton! I was quite surprised he did not say Obama, and I told him . Then he said, " Oh is it Obama?" Yikes. poor sweet guy.
I also found it cool that they put the average years of the stages, at least we can have some idea.
Ah so good to be here. Logging off on a Hawaii evening, so many of you are asleep already. Did you know that we are the last ones in the U.S.A. to celebrate New Years!
Don't be too misled by the length of time for the different stages. My SIL has been in the very last increment of Stage 7 for 3 years and no end in sight. All she can do is open her eyes, sleep and swallow soft food. Everything else is GONE. She has had ALZ for at least 11 to 12 years.
My husband was late Stage 7 for 5 years before he died. He was bedridden, uncommunicative and basically he ate, slept, pooped and peed. Other than the fact he had EOAD he was a healthy man. Sad....but he was easy to care for at that point.
So far my dh has been just like the Fisher site talks about with regard to their time line. Actually, it is kind of strange because he has a number of bad things wrong with him. Bad heart and COPD