Hello, this is my first visit to the society forum, and I must say I'm heartened by the discussions taking place, I think I'll really get a lot out of this.
I'm 36, and my father who is 68 was diagnosed with Alzheimers just under 3 years ago. He was immediately prescribed Aricept, 5mg. My mother who is 72 is his main carer. Approximately 4 months ago, his memory did decline (as expected) but his specialist increased his Aricept dose to 10mg per day - taken in the evening. However, over the past month, my mum and I have noticed that his behaviour is starting to change slightly - he simply can't sit still for 5 minutes. He now seems to constantly walk around the house, and is almost like a retriever, bringing articles he has 'found' in the house and giving them to my mum. We're both concerned about this behaviour - he will watch the odd film on TV, and goes through the daily ritual of taking the dog for a walk for the newspaper (but just thumbs through it and doesn't read it, but we don't mind, as his routine is vitally important). Today, after visiting for sunday lunch he kept on getting up in the middle of lunch to see what the dog wanted.
I guess I just wanted to ask if other people had encountered this behaviour too. He has a specialist appointment in a few weeks and we'll mentioned this behaviour, just for re-assurance if this is a normal progression with Alzheimers, or maybe something more.
Thanks everybody
I'm 36, and my father who is 68 was diagnosed with Alzheimers just under 3 years ago. He was immediately prescribed Aricept, 5mg. My mother who is 72 is his main carer. Approximately 4 months ago, his memory did decline (as expected) but his specialist increased his Aricept dose to 10mg per day - taken in the evening. However, over the past month, my mum and I have noticed that his behaviour is starting to change slightly - he simply can't sit still for 5 minutes. He now seems to constantly walk around the house, and is almost like a retriever, bringing articles he has 'found' in the house and giving them to my mum. We're both concerned about this behaviour - he will watch the odd film on TV, and goes through the daily ritual of taking the dog for a walk for the newspaper (but just thumbs through it and doesn't read it, but we don't mind, as his routine is vitally important). Today, after visiting for sunday lunch he kept on getting up in the middle of lunch to see what the dog wanted.
I guess I just wanted to ask if other people had encountered this behaviour too. He has a specialist appointment in a few weeks and we'll mentioned this behaviour, just for re-assurance if this is a normal progression with Alzheimers, or maybe something more.
Thanks everybody