Dad with vascular dementia

[lynnem27]

Hi all from a newbie to the TP site!

my father in law was diagnosed with vascular dementia in sept 2011, shortly after in November 2011 my mum in law died very suddenly out of the blue which as you can understand hit us all hard.

My dad in law seemed ok over the last year and was able to do day to day things which well on him own.

Over the past 3-4 months he has deteriorated very quickly, his speech is almost non existant and is very confused most of the time. Things came to head the other night when he got up in the middle of the night and went to the neighbour across the road from him and chapped their door in his pyjamas.

We are now going to get him reassessed to see if there has been any further TIA's and what the next steps should be.

I suppose what im asking is, is this rapid deteriation normal or is every case different? we are as you can imagine fearful for him if he can wander to neighbours in the middle of the night what else might happen.

Thanks for any advice you can give
Lynne

 

[grobertson62]

steps

Hi lynne
I can only go on my own experience with vascular dementia....well dads
It seems to go in steps.so everything seems to be on an even keel then bam an infection or tia and down we go to the next step. Sometimes recovering and going back up a little some times not.
My dad managed to live independantly for 4 years like that until a fall andmassive infection rendered him in need of full time care.

Dad did make the decision to come of bp meds as they were making him confused knowing hischances if tias would increase

Gill

 

[gillou]

My MIL has had vascular dementia for nearly twenty years. Only close family noticed at first, started with tia's very far between each episode. As other Gill said in above post sometimes she recovers afterwards, sometimes not. There is no hard and fast rule as to length of time between the stages of vascular dementia. We have found where possible to avoid stays in hospital as things are always much worse afterwards and to try and avoid stress and anxiety as this seems to bring on the illness in leaps and bounds.
Gill

 

[Big Effort]

Hello there,

I wanted to welcome you to this forum. It is an awful shock to realise that the disease has progressed and we need to reach out to get the support of others..... I joined a year ago.

Mum has Alzheimers, severe since January, and I suppose I just wanted to say I know how worried you are about night wandering, this always terrified me. Luckily Mum never did that (fingers crossed she doesn't start now). We installed a door bell with a large button with my name on it beside her bed..... we live just across the road, and if she is worried or needs us she does ring. So no need to go outside at night.

Dementia is such a sad disease, it seems to have a way of causing so much fear and worry on behalf of the person we love. Just today, I found Mum sitting in the sun on her patio, just in her knickers, in full view of the neighbours (they are great and don't even blush). I hooshed Mum back indoors, got her dressed fully and thought it was fortunate Mum had no inkling of what she had just done. She wasn't distressed, but this meant a lot fo me, too sad. Just too sad.

Welcome again, hope you get to post a whole lot as there are very informed, caring and competent people here. Hugs BE