Can someone with Alzheimer's stay the same for years?

Barb, I will say that some forms of dementia do progress faster than other forms. My mil has vascular dementia and we have known it for probably 10 years. She has lived with us for seven, due to her making some really stupid decisions that we recognized as not something that would get better. Plus her general health was declining and she was having trouble managing the house and the day to day activities. We totally expected her mental decline to be much faster than it has been. She seems to have hit a plateau and has been there for several years. She no longer takes Namenda or Aricept because of the side effects and the fact that they are not effective after a few years (how many years is up for debate).

Anyway, all that is to say, yes. The progress can be slow. There are many causes of dementia, Alzheimer's Disease is just one.

You can take her to a geriatric neurologist for testing. Talk to her GP about this.

We started seeing symptoms in my mom about 14 years ago with little misunderstandings, memory, hiding things, etc. but she was still functioning and living at home with my dad. She was still dressing beautifully, eating well, and going out socially but still there was something off. About 12 years ago when my son got married is when we really saw a change in memory. Still functioning at home but lots of memory issues. 7 years ago it started going downhill. Temper, memory, cooking or not/eating, and hygiene. 5 years ago after my dad's heart attack is when she derailed and had to be put into a facility. She just didn't understand his condition, didn't remember he had had it for more than 2 minutes (would ask where he was or get mad because he had been gone for such a long time). I would remind her that he was in the hospital or he couldn't take her out to eat because he had had a heart attack and she would tell me "Well, I KNOW that!!". Then she would turn to him (in bed) and tell him to get up and let's go eat. It was horrible. It was hard at first in the facility but she acclimated well after a couple of mos. and that was her home. After several falls due to her being a pacer all night she has landed in a wheelchair and hospice came in because she was seeming to decline. For the last 2 years, she has been just about the same. The longest 2 years. She knows my dad and myself but only speaks rarely in jibberish. Hospice will probably not be with her very much longer because she is stable and not declining. ONe of my best friends mother just went into a facility and has declined steadily. She has only had the disease for about 5 years. Each of our mom's are 90. Long story short, as others have said each person is so very different. I pray every day for the Lord to take my mom. She was one of the sweetest, smartest and best mom I know. It tears me up to see her like this. I can't even tell her that my sister, her oldest daughter passed 2 years ago. I DO believe that traumatic events can exacerbate memory problems. Just keep an eye on medications too. Lots of things can affect memory. Doesn't always have to be Dementia/Alz. It can just be age. My dad is doing really well for a man of 92. Still living on his own, driving (which he only drives in a 3 mile radius and will stop very soon) but his memory is starting to slip (heck so is mine, 63 :) and it's not dementia it's just plain ol aging. Sorry this is so long, but it will give you and others another side of someone else's story. Good luck and God Bless

Dementia progresses, but it can progress very slowly. It can remain fairly constant for a few years and then gradually decline to another plateau. Or after being constant the decline can be sudden.

It is possible that a big stress, such as the loss of a loved one, can trigger a decline, but as far as I know it does not cause dementia. Dementia involved damage to the brain, such as plaques, tangles, abnormal protein deposits, atrophy -- a physical change that can be clearly identified upon autopsy. While science is still searching for what causes this kind of damage I haven't heard a theory that it is caused by grief.

It has been three years since the diagnosis. Has she been following up with the same doctor? You may want to ask for another evaluation. or even to see a different specialist for a second opinion. Even if you get a confirmation of dementia, that doesn't mean it won't stay at this level for quite a while yet.

My husband had Lewy Body Dementia for 10 years. He dived in at the deep end, having the most severe symptoms the first year. Then some things improved and he stayed at a pretty functional moderate level for 7 to 8 years. His final year included decline, particularly in the physical realm. I remember asking his neurologist, Are you SURE he has LBD? and the doctor was absolutely sure. His diagnosis was confirmed with an autopsy.

I'm not sure what kind of dementia my mother has. (It is not LBD or Alzheimer's). She has had it, starting with mild cognitive impairment, for 5 or 6 years. It got gradually but noticeably worse. She has been in a nursing home for a year now and seems to be mostly stable. Once in a while she seems extra confused and my sisters and I think, oh-oh, here we go with a decline, but then the next day she is back to baseline.

This is a long way to say, "Each case is different."

I can identify. Mom has stayed stable more or less for a few years with some ups and downs. We had actually placed her in a memory care unit for a total of 15 days in December, where they of course diapered her. She didn't do especially well there and long story short (I'd been let go from a job), we brought her back home where I'm now paid to take care of her. No more diapers. She doesn't remember anything about those 15 days, she says, and it's as though it never happened. I honestly think she would have adjusted to memory care but for the roommate situation, lack of workers there, and it was a dismal place for the money it was costing. Her dementia started back before 2003, when dad died, and it's been a slow downhill course for her. She is very mobile and can get up easily when she falls, still goes to the john with few accidents and feeds herself, dresses and showers now with help, sleeps relatively well for most of the night, but memory and sense of direction are totally shot, vision worsening. Sundowning is awful some days (and why they call it sundowning confuses me, as she can be very out of it all day and all evening sometimes). She can have extra bad days during allergy season. She's 80 and I do believe this could go on another 5-10 years. Who knows?

Helping with kindness and structured activities plus 5 days per week of adult day care have helped my wife enter her eight year of AD. She is fairly stable, drug-free and a joy to be with.

As I havew posted in another post I have just had a visit from the memory advisor who in fact turned out to be a doctor specialising in geriatrics not the memory advisor but hey it gave me a chance to ask questions. Now he has just done a thorough review of Mums medication and removed 3 from the list always a bonus. I asked him about dementia and he said and I quote. It is like holding a baby bath full of water and walking with it for a mile over rough terrain. One knows that water will be spilled but not where it will go, when it will go or how it will go. One just knows that even with the most careful handling that water will spill out eventually. So having given him an utterly amazed look.....Well he said your mums dementia will get worse eventually but when where how is by no means certain - it is something we cannot predict. The timeframes differ for everyone and we cannot say that this person will and this person wont it depends on variables and we are only just scraping the surface of this. He went on to say that eventually there will be such a change in Mum that I will have no choice but to put her in care. If I get lucky she will die before that happens but probably not. hey ho what a bloody depressing day today has been

I just want to say 'thank you all'...I don't know any of you but these posts sure help me more than I ever could have imagined...it gives me different perspectives and different things to try...Peace to you all

Stress did not "cause" your mother's memory loss. No one yet has discovered why one loses their memory, not even genes, and a person can seem like they "stay the same for years" while little changes are happening in their brain you cannot see. My husband has been losing his memory for over 11 years, and he is still able to function pretty well at almost 89 yrs. So take each day as a gift with your mother and cherish the time you two have left. Best wishes!

Having visited (in the course of my previous work) probably about 40 homes that are registered for Elderly mentally frail in the UK I have these comments -
Positives - ie the good homes
Encourage individuals to do as much as they
spend time with them to encourage speech
Make sure they know in advance in what order people eat their food (oddly this is really important)
Know their history and understand the impact it has
Understand medication and what well being in the individual looks like
Have thened days of music art dance games etc on a regular basis and I mean 3 or 4 times a week
Provide outings
have church or religious engagement
Make sure individuals are showered/bathed regularly
Make sure that everyone has enough drinks to keep them hydrated
Negative - ie the bad ones
residents are over medicated and not treated as individuals
Sluices arent cleaned properly hence the stench or urine and faeces
residents not cleaned properly and bed sores common and not cared for effectively
staff are verbally or physically abusive
cares dont check on residents hourly at night
None of the stuff in the positives is evident
residents constantly found rocking wandering or sleeping
Staff often found drinking tea or smoking or chatting with each other rather than working

Bring on euthenasia in time for me please and be nice to your kids - they get to choose your care home!

I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's last year at age 73. I have been taking
donepezil (generic for aricept) since that time and am still doing well. How-ever when I tried going on an extended vacation it seemed that I did better in my old home surroundings! I'm sure everyone is different! Don't give up hope for your loved ones--we are finally very close to a few drugs which may change the course of this horrible disease!