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My husband, who is in his late 70's has early to moderate dementia of an unspecified type...most probably Alzheimer's. He is on both Aricept and Namenda. They seem to have slowed the progression of the disease slightly from when he was first diagnosed. Maybe...anyway. I have noticed the last six months or so, he will have two or three very good days when I can hardly tell he has dementia. He may ask me the same questions repeatedly, but his cognitive function seems almost normal. This will always be followed by one or two really bad days. Yesterday was the best day he has had in over a year. Not only was his memory functioning well, but his personality was much more like his "old self." Today, he is totally lost. He is more confused that he has been in a year. He is obsessing over misplacing a shoe horn. (I am at work, one block from my house. He is home alone) He has called me four times in the last one and a half hours, and can't even remember that he's already called and that I have explained to him that I will be home soon and find the shoe horn. He walked down to my office, to bring me the lunch that I had packed for him and left in the refrigerator which is something he never does, and sat in my office and obsessed some more over the shoe horn. Has anyone else noticed their loved one having really good days always followed by really bad ones?

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My Mom has dementia and has had it "officially" for about 7 years now and I have not noticed much of a pattern. Some days she has less confusion, some days she remembers more, some days the things she says just floor me. Example, the other day she noticed I had more blonde in my hair (I used to be a red head, but that's kind of faded and now I get blonde and red touch ups.) This of course, confuses the heck out of my Mom who thinks of me as a red head. She often asks me what happened to my red hair. (so tactful) ANYWAY, I told her that I had seen my hair dresser and mentioned the color in her hair. She looked shocked and said, "I don't color my hair." She's been buying hair color from the drugstore for 40ish years and doing it herself, so to hear her claim that she doesn't color her hair just totally had me flabbergasted. 40 years of a routine/habit just gone. She said, "I don't even have any grey hair." HA! I should have said nothing, but I couldn't help myself, I said, "Mom, you are 77 years old, you have grey hair!" A little bit later she said, "I can't believe I'm 77 years old!"
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Uh oh, he may be entering the wandering phase. Make sure he has an ID bracelet.
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My father did not have dementia but did have CHF - he would have a good day followed by a couple bad days. I attributed it to over doing it on the good days. Perhaps the same principle applies in your husbands case.
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