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My dad has vascular dementia and in the last year he went down hill fast he didnt know where he was he got winded just walking a few feet. we really thought he might die with in six months and then all of a sudden he got better I mean really better his breathing was better and his memory got better and he dosent beleive us when we told him he was really sick. can these symptoms come and go?

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Yes they come and go especially if his oxygen levels are fluctuating. Get a fingerprint pulse oximeter and keep a log of his levels. If you see less than 90% you call 911 and get him to the ER.
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Did your father's GP or cardiologist change his medications prior to his getting better?

If your father had been suffering from pulmonary oedema as a result of heart disease, that would explain the breathlessness on exertion and also his confusion - which would be not exactly caused by vascular dementia, but by oxygen deprivation (they're closely associated, but vascular dementia is permanent whereas low oxygen can be corrected, as Pam points out). A change in the dose or type of his diuretic so that it suddenly started working would have seemed like a miracle cure - with diuretics, as the dose gets stepped up, you don't see a gradual improvement; it goes "nothing, nothing, nothing - oh yeah! That's cracked it!" Similarly, my mother was switched from furosemide, which had stopped working well, to bumetanide and the results were amazing.

In any case, I hope that your father's health continues stable for a good while yet. Enjoy having him back!
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My 100 year old Mother has severe aortic stenosis and heart failure. She was living on her own and driving until she was 99, then symptoms hospitalized her twice and she is in hospice.

Her cognition took a sharp decline with the heart failure. Now she will have episodes during the day where she gets confused. She'll be fine and know who I am and then in the middle of the day she won't remember who I am or where she is. She will say I'm her sister and that she is living in a house with her parents and siblings from 90 years ago. Then later that night she'll correctly identify me and where she is living. There does not seem to be any rhythm or reason to these lapses in memory.

I monitor her pO2 saturation and there is no change during the day. Can dementia come and go during the day? If so, what might cause it?
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My mom also had aortic stenosis, chf. Could she possibly be having TIA' s? Does O2 sat tell you about blood flow to the brain? I don't know enough about any of this to give an answer. I'm hoping someone will be along who can.
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