Early Onset Dementia/alzheimers Posted: 01-15-06 11:11am
I have known my husband now since 1988.
Just as we were starting to date, his mom
was having some medical issues. Initially
they thought it was depression. Her mood
changed and she lost her speech. From the
time that we started dating to april of
1990, when she passed away, she had gone
down hill extremely fast. She was pretty
aware of things in the fall of 1988 but
couldn't speak and all of 1989 went from
that ...To not being able to swallow ,to
coming out of the house in just her
undergarments, to the nursing home. I
don't have any information of any signs
earlier than 1988 other than once
everything was said and done his dad did
say that he figured something was going on
as her behavior had changed awhile back.
Her personality had changed.
I have noticed some behavior in my husband
that resembles his mom's behavior. It's
more the facial expressions. When he is
watching tv or listening to someone his
mouth gapes and sometimes he gets a vacant
stare. He is 52 and his mom was 62 when
she died. They said it was dementia. I
did some research about the disease and
charted some of my husbands behavior. I
am suspecting that he is heading in that
direction. Some of the changes I have
noticed is he is much more moody than the
first half of our relationship. He does
not pay attention and when he relays
information it is not the same.
Example....I told him (when we were
talking about our son's hockey team) "the
other goalie may be traded to a team in
ohio. I didn't know there was a junior
team in ohio." I heard him on the phone
talking to his brother a half hour later
and he was giving him information about
our son's hockey team. He said to his
brother..."the other goalie is going to
boston. He is going to college there." I
was puzzled as to why he said that.
A couple other conversations we had was a
little off the wall......
I was looking out the window last winter.
I noticed the snow under the pine tree was
all flattened out. Fairly large area too.
I asked him..."wow, what do you suppose
did that?" he came over and very matter of
factly said..."the meter man." I looked at
him and questioned..."the meter man???" he
said "yea, he lost his papers". I was
flabergasted by his answer, plus I wanted
to bust out laughing but he was serious.
We live in a city and yes the meter man
has to go house to house but they don't
have "papers" anymore. Within that same
week I noticed spots on our entryway rug.
I commented to him that I thought they
were water but they are not. I wanted to
know if he knew what they were. His
comment was.."it was when the fire trucks
went by." I said "what?" he said "yea,
they just went by...Didn't you hear them?"
I did but that was 2 streets over and what
would that have to do with my rug??? I am
afraid to ask anymore questions and I
don't drill him on it because he is
serious. He is not being sarcastic or
funny. I am silently taking notes and am
getting more concerned.
Does anyone know of such a thing? There
is more but just wanted to throw that out
there to see if this is some of the things
that go on with early dementia and/or
alzheimers.
Thanks.
|
menomom
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 7 Location: wisconsin
Posted: 02-23-06 12:19pm
Adding to my above observations....
Are these additional signs?
My husband will be so absorbed in one
little event that he has to tell everybody
he talks to for the next few days. I am
not talking a sporting event or a marriage
or birth. But for example...
He visited his dad in the nursing home and
met a distant cousin of his dad's. When
he got home he called my daughter (his
step-daughter..Not that it matters) and
went into the whole family tree thing on
the phone. He told both of my sons and he
had the family tree thing out when I got
home from work and started in telling me.
Just calls up and out of the blue starts
in on his story......Am I making a big
deal out of it?
Another thing is that he does repeat
telling me things he just told me 5
minutes ago and it doesn't trigger that he
just told me. I never correct him but he
says it over exactly like the first time
and it doesn't come to him that he already
said it.
When I see him listen to someone it looks
like he struggles to understand.
It's really hard to explain because there
is so much more.
Just wondering if I should put some
pressure on him to visit a doctor or I am
being too critical.