From the New York Times, July 3, 2015, "More caregivers are no spring chickens themselves", by Paula Span. The article's focus is actually on spouses. The caregivers are over age 75.
The comments are interesting. At this time there are 115 of them. Not all reference spousal care but many do. Some mention AD or dementia. One, from "Steve" stated that his mother was "rehabbed" from AD and returned to normal cognitive function.
There are some interesting comments on Medicaid, home care and memory care placement. Most likely posters here won't find much of anything new. But, as others mentioned regarding Glen Campbell- at least it is something, some attention, some concern.
As normal, seems the ones they wrote about have money for in-home help and all. But, yes, good more attention is being given. Just hope sooner rather than later it = more research funding.
There was a woman we knew who was in Group and Daycare with my DH who had been diagnosed with FTD. She was in her early fifties and after her husband insisted she be re examined by another Dr. it turned out that she had what they called melancholia. He had noticed that she was starting to come back to her old self. She is now driving, cooking, cleaning and volunteering at a residence near them she also serves at seniors dinners. She is totally back to her old self. I have seem her go from just like my DH to this lovely full functioning lady. Her first DX was totally off. We are so happy for them. As caregivers we have to be ever watchful.
There are other causes of dementia symptoms and some of them are curable. I suspect that the mother who was rehabbed did not have dementia but some other condition misdiagnosed as dementia. Assuming that the write was accurate in his post.
I think this might be the comment abby* is talking about -- the one that said a person who had AD patient was returned to normal cognitive function. It was posted on July 4 by Steve from Rainsville, Alabama. I've copied part of it here:
"'[My mother fell] and fractured her shoulder and her pelvis and spent the next several months rehabbing and recovering. We all did it together. From November 2012 until September 2014 it was a constant challenge with fractured vertebrae and severe depression with several hospital stays and two periods of nursing home rehab. My mother was one of the strongest people I have ever known and twice she rehabbed from severe illness including a period of three months of psychosis, delirium, and a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Dementia. After four months she came home and lived the rest of her life at home with a two week hospital stay before coming home with hospice services. She may have had dementia but she returned to what our family considered her normal cognitive functioning and resumed being the family historian. Two ladies helped me five hours a day five days a week and my daughters took over many responsibilities despite living over an hour away. They came home when she did the last time and provided nearly all care for the final few days. It is hard."
She might of had symptoms of dementia but the cause of the symptoms was treatable/curable. Sounds like she suffered from depression which can very well cause symptoms of dementia. Sounds like she was misdiagnosed or they were told she had dementia and they added the Alzheimer to it.
It is not uncommon for someone 75+ to experience disorientation and a decline in cognitive function after they fall and experience a broken bone, typically a hip and they often do not recover fully both physically and cognitively from the fall. My father-in-law fell at 80 broke his hip and elbow and although he recovered physically he never regained his cognitive functions. Now the medical professional typically do a hip replacement when there's a broken hip and it seems to prevent the downward cognitive spiral.
Perhaps the mother was able to reverse any of the side effects from the fall with good medical and caregiver care.