I brought my dad up from another state and he was in bad shape, I have very little information . All the doctors just agree he has dementia and needs memory care. He has pretty bad behaviors but I really have no clue how far along he is or what type ???
Wishing you the best of luck with a difficult situation.
Since no dementia has a "treatment" of medication that does any appreciable good for them there is really no need of a definitive dx. right away. But it helps to know in your daily planning and dealing with things, and a good Neuro-psyc exam can give you best guess.
Someone recently posted that their doctor said they would have to kill the patient to find out for sure. Sounded cruel as put, but truth is that they best know on autopsy what brain matter is involved. However, there are some tests that give information, and an exam tells an expert a lot.
Good luck. Learn all you can. People hate when others say "It's a journey", but really, ANY illness is just that.
Dementia is an umbrella term and all some ever get by way of a diagnosis. I guess the good news is, the diagnosis of dementia often is enough to get needed services.
The geriatrician nor neurologist I took Aunt to ever referred to her as having Alzheimer’s but many of the less knowledgeable lumped her under that category. I know they didn’t do test but seemed to base their ideas on the fact that she was on memory meds and lack of short term memory.
As Joann points out some of the types need to be ruled out as some meds aren’t appropriate for them. Lewy Body for one. Do a little reading on that one.
The brain is a vast territory with much to be discovered even though a great deal is known. We get annoyed with doctors who don’t know but in a way, it is refreshing when they are honest. Medicine is not an exact science. Exact science is an oxymoron.
So, Brandyrae, even if you had been with your dad from the start of his decline, you probably wouldn’t know much more, if any, than you do now about his diagnosis. You might have been a little more educated by now in the realization that you will probably never know exactly what he has. We caregivers are in a constant learning mode.
Once you have him in care it gives you a little more space to accept that perhaps the best we can do for them is to see that they are treated with kindness and not neglected. That turns out to be quiet the challenge on it’s own. Or at least it was for me.
I used the ADL chart for many years and would note that she became increasingly unable to do anything for herself. Slowly but surely. That is one way you can discern the end is nearing. Regardless of diagnosis we all do die. Some manage to skip a lot of the decline if they have a heart attack or an accident etc.
Today is aunts birthday. She would have been 99. She passed a few months ago. She was so active all her life. I used to nag her about going up ladders and mowing her grass in extreme heat when in her 80s. She was dancing on her 90th bd. Went to the casino with her cousin who was a few months older the day after.
I was always telling her that she would die of an accident. Boy was I wrong.
Have an evaluation by a neurologist or geriatric care specialist to clarify the type and stage of the condition.
Gather information about memory care facilities or home care options to ensure your father receives appropriate care.
Consider caregiver support groups to get guidance and support for yourself.
These steps can help both your father’s well-being and your own convenience.
The hospice nurse thought Parkinson's, which I had never considered, because he never had hand tremors, more like hand jerks. He was having trouble swallowing food and was drooling. He became wheelchair bound and couldn't sit up straight. But he did have shuffling when he was still walking, and that was a tell tale sign of Parkinson's which I never considered.
I did a lot of research so I could try to find answers and come up with my own diagnosis, but it seems his symptoms overlapped with many types in the last year of his life. So I let go of finding out the specific type. I just thought of him as having "complications from dementia."
The hospice nurse who came in to evaluate my mom took one look at my dad and said he would qualify also! I was not expecting that. He died four months after being on hospice. My mom has now been on hospice for 5 months and she will be re-evaluated at the end of this month.
It's hard not knowing, but I freed myself once he was in hospice and I focused on comfort care.