Symptoms Mild Dementia, Early Stage Alzheimer's disease

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Symptoms Mild Dementia/Early Stage Alzheimer's disease

• Diminished short-term memory
• Misplacing belongings in odd places; losing valuable belongings, like wallet or purse
• Difficulty finding the right word: "Tip of the tongue" syndrome
• Person seems "not himself" and shows uncharacteristic behaviors
• Lapses in judgment
• Difficulty with mental arithmetic and handling money
• Disorientation in unfamiliar places or situations
• May become apathetic or withdrawn, avoiding social situations
• More difficulty with routine tasks at work or at home, or may take longer to complete tasks
• Irritation or anger in response to increasing memory lapses

Specific Examples

• Asks the same question repeatedly within the same conversation
• Puts car keys away in refrigerator
• Unable to recall word for "car" and then says in frustration, "The thing you drive to work in."
• A normally shy person becomes uncharacteristically outgoing or talkative at a family gathering
• Agrees to buy services or products he/she doesn't need from telephone sales person
• Finds it difficult to balance checkbook or figure out correct amount of money to pay for an item while shopping
• Forgets to eat, skips meals, or eats the same food every meal

Source: John Hopkins, Memory, Health Alert


Related content

• How Alzheimer's Destroys the Brain -- Video
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Self Assessment Tests)
• What is Alzheimer's Disease?
• What is Dementia?
• What’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
• Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients

The Alzheimer's Action Plan

300 Tips for Making Life Easier

How to Get an Alzheimer's Patient to Eat

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Don't approach the problems that come along with dementia with dread. Instead think positive, and find a solution. You might be able to benefit from some of these eating tips.



As Alzheimer's or dementia progress getting a patient to eat a nutritious meal, or to eat enough, can become a problem.

This can cause the Alzheimer's caregiver to become frustrated, confused, and even angry. It can also bring on feelings of sadness and hopelessness.

There are a long list of potential problems that cause dementia patients to eat less. There are also many ways that can be tried to deal with or eliminate the problem.

The most important factor in this wide spread problem is in fact the color of the plate.

What color is your plate?

Jump to continue reading

How to Listen to Alzheimer's

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Two of the biggest problems Alzheimer's and Dementia caregivers face is how to cope and communicate with someone living with Alzheimer's.
By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Let's face it, Alzheimer's patients often say things that seem nonsensical to us; or, say things that leave us exasperated, confused, frustrated, and sometimes angry.

The words they say often cause us to react negatively.

The issue: are you really listening to the person living with dementia? Or, are you immediately reacting, or overreacting to their words?

Once I took the giant step to the left and entered Alzheimer's World the words my mother was saying took on a new and entirely different meaning for me.

I actually started listening to her instead of over reacting.


Jump to the Alzheimer's Reading Room to continue reading

My Hospice Care Decision for Dotty

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Let me start by saying that I had a crystal clear understanding of the types of care that Dotty wanted at the end of her life. We had these discussion more than 20 years prior to her death.

Dotty did not want to be resuscitated, put on an machines that prolonged her life for weeks or even days, and she did not want her life extended artificially.

I had an advance directive, and Power of Attorney, that gave me the legal power to make decisions concerning Dotty's end of life care. Or, for any care decision she could not make on her own. These documents were signed and executed well in advance. 

Dotty's clear wish was to die at home and she wanted Hospice and Palliative care.

Jump to the Alzheimer's Reading Room for the complete story

Baby's 1st Post-Surgery UTI And Needs Hospitalization

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...but she's on home leave, which means the doctor has given us consent to bring her home. However, I have to bring Baby to the hospital 3x a day for antibiotics jabs. This is Baby's first UTI since her Ureteral Reimplantation surgery more than 6 months ago. Both the surgeon and I are perplexed as to why Baby would get a UTI since the post-surgery MCUG scan in August 2009 showed that she has no more Kidney Reflux. I am suspecting that the UTI is caused by her swimming in the pool at Hard Rock Hotel Penang 2 weeks ago. Our paed told us that public pools during public holidays / school holidays are the dirtiest as they are flooded with people and the hotel maintenance staffers may not have ample time to clean the pool.

Long story cut short, Baby was braver this time. She screamed and bawled for a short while when the paed inserted the IV line on her left hand. It was quite a fast one and took under 15 minutes for everything to be completed - finding the vein, IV line inserted and hand bandaged. In the past, her doctors needed at least half an hour to over an hour to fix the line. Baby even allowed the doctor to carry her after the procedure, which was very, very uncommon of her to allow a doctor / nurse to carry her, what more the doctor who had just poked her, swaddled her so tightly with a cloth and caused her so much pain. I guess preparing her mentally before the procedure helped.

Before she went into the procedures room, while we were waiting in our room for the doctor to arrive, I told her this "Baby, the doctor will give you an injection on your hand. There will be very little pain, please don't cry ok? Mummy will wait for you outside the room. Mummy can't go in. You don't cry ok? Mummy loves you" Baby nodded her head and smiled!

Baby has to be in the hospital again for her 2nd antibiotics jab for today. She needs another jab at 10:30pm tonight.

Alzheimer's, Delirium, and Urinary Tract Infection

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Delirium is a sudden alteration in mental status -- brain failure in a vulnerable individual, often an older adult with multiple health issues, caused by something else such as medications, urinary tract infection, lack of sleep, excessive light or noise or pain.

Delirium, which occurs suddenly, is not the same as dementia, although individuals with dementia are more susceptible to developing delirium during hospitalization than individuals without dementia.

Alzheimer's caregivers take note.

The dreaded urinary tract infection. Yikes.

One of the most frequently discussed topics by Alzheimer's caregivers in support groups is the urinary tract infection. This happens because most persons living with dementia cannot tell you they are sick; and as a result, they often suffer from urinary tract infections that result in a trip to the hospital emergency room.

I can't tell you how many "hair raising" emails I have received from caregivers describing hallucinations and delirium as a result of an infection, almost always a urinary tract infection.

One big issue with infection is memory loss on the part of the person living with Alzheimer's. In most cases I know of, the patients memory declines when they suffer from an infection that goes undetected for a while. The question? Will their memory come back to where it was prior to the infection?

Jump to the Alzheimer's Reading Room to continue reading

 

Symptoms Mild Dementia, Early Stage Alzheimer's disease

To contact us Click HERE
Symptoms Mild Dementia/Early Stage Alzheimer's disease

• Diminished short-term memory
• Misplacing belongings in odd places; losing valuable belongings, like wallet or purse
• Difficulty finding the right word: "Tip of the tongue" syndrome
• Person seems "not himself" and shows uncharacteristic behaviors
• Lapses in judgment
• Difficulty with mental arithmetic and handling money
• Disorientation in unfamiliar places or situations
• May become apathetic or withdrawn, avoiding social situations
• More difficulty with routine tasks at work or at home, or may take longer to complete tasks
• Irritation or anger in response to increasing memory lapses

Specific Examples

• Asks the same question repeatedly within the same conversation
• Puts car keys away in refrigerator
• Unable to recall word for "car" and then says in frustration, "The thing you drive to work in."
• A normally shy person becomes uncharacteristically outgoing or talkative at a family gathering
• Agrees to buy services or products he/she doesn't need from telephone sales person
• Finds it difficult to balance checkbook or figure out correct amount of money to pay for an item while shopping
• Forgets to eat, skips meals, or eats the same food every meal

Source: John Hopkins, Memory, Health Alert


Related content

• How Alzheimer's Destroys the Brain -- Video
• Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's (5 Best Self Assessment Tests)
• What is Alzheimer's Disease?
• What is Dementia?
• What’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
• Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients

The Alzheimer's Action Plan

300 Tips for Making Life Easier