I know this difficult but where else can I ask this? What’s the likely time scale for VD and what’s to expect within the decline of the condition. I know everyone is different but generally I’d like to know.
That's an interesting question, and one I guess a lot of us have Googled or at least wondered about! In my case it's my mum. As soon as she was diagnosed I looked it up and it seems to be around 6 years, with a stipulation that it will vary from person to person. So, not much help there! I have a friend whose father lived for about 6 years from when it was really noticeable (sadly he went right to end stage, in spite of this being quite uncommon I understand - on the 'Understanding Dementia' course I attended, the psychiatrist giving the talk said very few people live to end stage, ie. total brain shutdown and therefore total body shutdown, most, he said, will die of whatever they would have died of any way). Is that true? I don't know.
It's a horrid thing to think about and to try to research, but because dementia is so unpredictable and no medics can really tell us what to expect, I think it just makes it all so much harder as we don't know "how long".
Mum is 92. She was fit before her mental decline, diabetes and high BP, but apart from that fine, walking with a stick and very bright mentally at 89. She had an 'event' suddenly that pushed her over into severe cognitive impairment. She was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia due to Small Vessel Disease. It was probably slowly building over the preceding years. In October it will be three years since all this started. Now she is mostly bed bound, cannot walk (though can still just about weight bear for the odd transfer) and has no control over toilet function. I'm amazed she's still here, but she's strong in so many ways. I have a horrible feeling she may go close to end stage, like my friend's father. I don't really want to watch that happen, but I suspect I will be doing so. GP has said if she has a big stroke, which I understand can be very likely with VaD, then she could die due to that, I hope that if she has a big one, then she does go with it, as it will leave her in a much worse state. He has also told me that once bedbound, the decline will be faster. Sometimes I don't know whether to feel hopeful or cry about a faster decline. No getting my life back until she's gone. It's dreadful.