Has anyone else had experience of these "funny turns"

[Sringtime]

Hello My husband was diagnosed with mixed Dementia 10 days ago. After 2 days of feeling anxious, upset and frightened I decided to book us a holiday abroad, to give us both something to focus on. And of course to try and enjoy every precious moment we have together, which will hopefully be many years. However what is worrying me is that my husband has during the last few months had occasional funny turns where he goes extremely dizzy, feels sick and then walks bashing and banging in to things by which time I have heard the noise and managed to catch him before he falls. This happened again the other night, I thought he may be having a TIA so called the ambulance. When he was "eventually" seen by a doctor I was assured it was not a TIA as they performed various stregth tests, smile, repeat sentences, and reflex tests and these proved he was fine and it had probably been no more than a faint and he was then discharged. I was obviously pleased and relieved. However when I read up about TIA's it leads me to believe that they are so small, and do not cause any of the symptoms the Doc was looking for!! As they are not large strokes. Also I am now questioning why my hubby keeps having these so called faints if thats what they are. I am so frightened as we will be in a foreign country, and if he falls he could hurt himself badly. Has anyone got any advice they can give or been through something similar.I think I should also add that my husband is 74 yrs but can walk miles he is not unsteady on his feet, but has become very very slow when walking.

 

[susy]

It could be his blood pressure dropping suddenly. That can cause feelings of nausea and panic. Dizziness definitely and possible fainting. Sweating and going quite pale can also be a sign of that too.

I would take him to see the GP and have him checked over again x

 

[Sringtime]

Thank you for your reply Susy. His blood pressure, sats, heart and bloods were all checked by the ambulance crew and at the hospital and all were fine. x

 

[FifiMo]

The difficulty with TIAs is that, by their very nature, over and done with , with no residual symptoms, by the time any medical person gets to examine them. Some people, for example, have many TIAs in their sleep and are not even aware that they have happened.

Whether they are TIAs or Faints who knows at this stage. What I would suggest that you do is, make some notes every time they happen. Think about how your husband was just before the 'episode', they day before, was it a hot day, had he perhaps not had enough to drink, had he been overly tired, overly exerting himself. Any little snippets you can think of. This will help build up information that you can share with any doctor as you go forward and something in there might just help identify a pattern or give a clue as to what might be going on.

As to your holiday, my main advice would be to make sure that he has proper medical insurance and that you declare his dementia so that if something happens you have the right level of cover no matter how much or how little treatment he may need.

Look out for Izzy on here as her and her husband have travelled extensively and she might be able to point you in the right direction as to good travel insurance etc.

Fiona

 

[Sringtime]

Thank you Fiona I will follow your advice and start to keep a note. No problems with his insurance, he has good cover and Dementia declared, plus when we arrived back from the hospital, the first thing I did the following morning was to contact the Travel Insurance Provider to inform them as to what had happened. They were excellent took the details and immediately emailed me noting that I had informed them, and the nice part was there was no extra charge
.

 

[annette1945]

Hello My husband was diagnosed with mixed Dementia 10 days ago. After 2 days of feeling anxious, upset and frightened I decided to book us a holiday abroad, to give us both something to focus on. And of course to try and enjoy every precious moment we have together, which will hopefully be many years. However what is worrying me is that my husband has during the last few months had occasional funny turns where he goes extremely dizzy, feels sick and then walks bashing and banging in to things by which time I have heard the noise and managed to catch him before he falls. This happened again the other night, I thought he may be having a TIA so called the ambulance. When he was "eventually" seen by a doctor I was assured it was not a TIA as they performed various stregth tests, smile, repeat sentences, and reflex tests and these proved he was fine and it had probably been no more than a faint and he was then discharged. I was obviously pleased and relieved. However when I read up about TIA's it leads me to believe that they are so small, and do not cause any of the symptoms the Doc was looking for!! As they are not large strokes. Also I am now questioning why my hubby keeps having these so called faints if thats what they are. I am so frightened as we will be in a foreign country, and if he falls he could hurt himself badly. Has anyone got any advice they can give or been through something similar.I think I should also add that my husband is 74 yrs but can walk miles he is not unsteady on his feet, but has become very very slow when walking.

My hubby as vascular dementia and heart failure.He suffers from low blood pressure and gets dizzy spells and prone to falls.Sounds like the same as your hubby.Check with his GP

 

[eleni52]

Holidays and funny turns

I admire your attitude (which is similar to my own) in wanting to spend as much quality time with your better half whilst you still can. My husband was diagnosed with mixed dementia in April, 2013. Whilst he suffers bad memory loss - he's still driving and quite active. I have noticed that, whilst before his diagnosis when I had to run to keep pace with him, he has recently started walking very slowly. No obvious funny turns though so I have no idea why his walking has slowed. I wanted to take him on holiday abroad whilst his condition is fairly stable and am aware that it maybe a last time depending on how his dementia progresses. I was loath to book in case his dementia worsened between now and June when we are due to take our holiday in Greece. However, with insurance in place and dementia admitted, we now have a focus and something positive to look forward to. Since H's diagnosis, we have enjoyed several short coach trips of three and four nights duration. H. enjoys these, as the coach operators organise home pick-ups and returns. The other holidaymakers are usually "oldies" like us and we've met many couples where one or other suffers memory loss and dementia, so we don't feel uncomfortable on these breaks. Hope you have a super holiday and that you continue to look on the positive side and enjoy this and more holidays in the future.

 

[maryw]

I wonder if your husband has had some silent strokes (these can happen in your sleep). I noticed changes in my husband's gait before his major stroke. Thankfully he has regained the ability to walk and can manage fairly long distances but all very slowly. He also gets dizzy spells. An MRI diagnosed past lacunar strokes and small vessel disease. I have read that this can affect gait and walking. So perhaps it is all part and parcel of the mixed dementia diagnosis?

 

[Brucie]

My late wife Jan would have what I always called 'faints', but which some doctors said must have been 'fits'.

This was what first made Jan tell me there was something wrong with her. She would faint and fall when I was at work, and was concerned about the bruises.

The presentation of these faints - and I still call them that, because they presented exactly like a classic faint - was always the same, and we were able to have a plan for when the first sign appeared.

The first sign was Jan saying she could 'feel a fluttering rising in her chest'. That was when we learned that she should get on the floor to get blood flowing into her head [that was our thinking]. When we did that, there might be a mini faint, but nothing dramatic. She would go white, as in a faint, and she might feel sick, though she never was. She would slowly recover afterwards. Most frequently at first, these would happen around breakfast time.

Before we learned to do that, she would simply collapse where she was standing.

After Jan first brought this to my attention, we had another 8 years of normality, 2 years of slowly deteriorating normality, and then a further 10 years when Jan was in permanent care.

We did take holidays during that 8 years, and they were precious times.

Take care, and best wishes for the future.

 

[LYN T]

Hi

My Husband was finally diagnosed with AD in July 2012

He too started to walk slowly and there was a slight change in his gait

Now he can hardly walk (although some of that is medication induced).He is on meds for high blood pressure. From my experience everyone is different; some people carry on walking with no change to their gait.

Well done for arranging a holiday. I hope you both enjoy yourselves

Take care

Lyn T

 

[Sringtime]

Thank you all for your replies. xx

 

[3shirley]

My hubby was same started to walk slowly and his gait altered now has no mobility whe all this started went for tests and found aswell as dementia he has fluid on the brain

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[Chuggalug]

I haven't read all the replies yet, but he might benefit from a doctor checking his ears? I've experienced this because of my own ear problems. I was thankful it eventually seemed to resolve itself! The dizziness is not very nice.

Hugs.

 

[Saffie]

I'm surprised that the hospital said that they weren't TIAs because of no residual impairment, as my understandingi is that there is none that is obvious. I believe a scan can show evidence of a mini-stroke which lasts a bit longer than a TIA even though they are often condsidered the same.

Only just realised this is a few months old - so please disregard my post! Should have checked first!

 

[Jinx]

My husband has had 'turns' for the past 20 years which I have always put down to TIAs. He says he feels unwell, loses the ability to speak/form coherent words though he can make noises and sometimes seems rooted to the spot. He recovers speech in about 1 hour but is always very sleepy afterwards. He had 2 of these in 24 hours last weekend and we ended up in the stroke unit on Monday. They are now saying the turns could be seizures/epileptic fits, and he has to go for an EEG to see if there are any irregularities. He definitely has had a stroke/strokes in the past which show up on his brain scan; he has vascular dementia.


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[Ann Mac]

We've had a few occasions where Mils gait changes - its hard to describe, but she leans forward, on her toes almost, and moves very fast - its almost like she feels she is beginning to topple, and is sort of 'running' to try to stop herself over balancing. She is aware she is doing it, but can't stop, even though she finds it distressing. Occasionally she will also tend to 'list' to the side. She often mentions she feels 'fuzzy' afterwards - but then, she can feel 'fuzzy'at other times, when there is no change in her walk, so i don't know to what extent that is part of the episode. She seems to be particularly 'clumsy' for a short while after, and is likely to bump into door ways as she tries to go through them. This actually happened when the CPN was here one day - and she was stumped. She suggested it could be a visual problem, caused by Mils cataracts, or possibly, TIA's - though she said that unless there were significant residual problems after each episode, it was probable that tia's wouldn't be picked up after the 'event', nothing could be done about them after the event, and Mil would be distressed by a hospital visit, so the best thing to do was just keep note, and let her know if these 'episodes' increased in frequency, length or severity. The CPN also said that 'gait' could be affected by simply progression of Mils dementia - and again, little could be done about that other than to try and meet increased needs as they happen.

So, I'm just keeping 'notes' at the moment - what she had been doing before each episode, when she had last eaten, if she seemed to have a UTI or be constipated, if she had complained of headache or more than the usual visual problems caused by the cataracts, all that sort of thing. I'm no medical expert, but so far, I can't see any rhyme, reason or pattern to the circumstances of when this happens. But, I'm keeping track, just in case.

 

[CeliaW]

Its always worth considering the following especially as many elderly / dementia patients may be on more than one medication.

"Certain medications have been linked to disordered gait and falls. The chief culprits are psychotropic medications, such as neuroleptics, benzodiazepines and antidepressants. Blood pressure medications, diuretics—which can affect blood pressure—and steroids, which can weaken muscles if taken over a long period of time, can also cause unsteadiness or dizziness. Drug interactions and high dosages can also affect gait."

Taken from http://www.acpinternist.org/archives/2005/11/gait.htm

 

[truth24]

My husband used to get these dizzy spells when he would suddenly fall, recovering in moments but feeling a bit peculiar for a while afterwards. After thorough investigations his doctor at the time diagnosed pinching of the carotid artery after suddenly turning his head but do wonder now if these could have been TIAs which have contributed to the vascular part of his dementia.

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