Walking difficulties

[ronchy]

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum. I care for my husband who was diagnosed with AD about 2 years ago though we knew the year before that that something was amiss and suspected dementia. In general, husband C is still functioning reasonably though executive function is not good. The main thing which frustrates him is his aphasia which is a challenge particularly as he cannot often find the noun he needs and sometimes what comes out is a string of nonsense but we manage. My question relates to walking. He has slowed down but we can still walk comfortably into town every day, taking probably 20 minutes where before it was probably nearer to 10. We went away for a few days which went quite well apart from one incident. We had walked out to a bar for a coffee about 6pm and returned without any problems to the flat we were renting. About 9pm having eaten we walked out with a view to having a small beer at the same bar or one nearby but we had mistimed it and most of the tables in the bars were taken so after about half an hour of fruitless searching we decided to head back, this involving the same distance as earlier. This is when I noticed that C was walking leaning to one side. Before long this had changed and he was walking with his head and body leaning backwards and steps were no longer in a straight line. I offered to hold his arm but he became irate and said it was not necessary. We then reached a part of the road which has an incline. Luckily there were railings on this part of the pavement but C could not get up without holding onto the railings and dragging himself up and moving from railing to railing. All the while, i was walking behind him with the intention of catching him should he fall back as he was adamant there was nothing wrong. We got back and after sitting on the sofa for about half an hour he was able to walk reasonably. The next day we walked out as we had been doing for the past two days without any problems. This has occurred a couple of times before where he has seemed to struggle to walk but not to the extent of this incident. I wonder if anyone has had experience of this. I thought that because this happened in the evening at the culmination of a day's exertions that this could have been an issue which could be avoided if I took care to restrict the amount of activity. Any advice would be gratefully received.

 

[karaokePete]

Hello and welcome @ronchy

Walking difficulties are common as dementia progresses and my wife has lost most of her stamina so our walks have become ever shorter. My wife is also prone to falling so I have her take my arm and our local NHS Falls Prevention Service assisted.

Leaning is also common and has been discussed many times. If you click the link below you can do a search which will throw up many past threads and you may find some useful tips therein. Good luck

Search

forum.alzheimers.org.uk

 

[TNJJ]

Hi. My dad no longer walks but he leans to the side when tired

 

[jennifer1967]

my husband cant walk very far at all now. we usually go somewhere where there is a bench or seat so he sits down and i run around[mobility scooter] doing what i need. his legs do hurt if hes done any sort of walking. he staggers down the road at times and wobbly. it looks like hes drunk but hes not. we have just accepted that he has a limit to his walking. ive even asked if he wanted a scooter to help but he says as long as he is walking he will keep going.

 

[ronchy]

Thanks to you all for your prompt responses. I looked at old threads as suggested and one seemed to be almost on all fours with our situation. In that case the writer had contacted a doctor who suggested that it might be dehydration and other writers on that thread concurred with that and also thought that constipation could be a cause. In our case, both of those may have had a hand to play in what happened, certainly the constipation and it was uncommonly hot while we were away so dehydration is a possibility. That has reassured me but I think also that breaking walks up into small chunks is the way to go.