Hi MILVasculardem,
OH was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and vascular dem about 2007. He had been showing signs of memory loss for several years, but a decision to move house delayed going to the gp!
He was given donepezil and tolerated it well. He had a TIA some months later, when we were told that the scan found an earlier TIA but not the current one! What earlier one was our response!
So time progressed, the number of TIAs increased. About 4 years ago he could no longer be left alone, though he went to daycare, to give me a break.
Over the last 18 months he got markedly worse. Mentally he did not know things like birthdays and Christmas. In January 14 he had to have an operation on his leg arteries, which were blocked. Immediately before that, he could only walk a short distance because of pain in the calves, it's called intermittent claudication. The op solved this problem, but he was unsteady and used 2 sticks afterwards, rather than one.
He was always subject to constipation, but this became lots more frequent last year. TIAs were also increasing in frequency. He was always keen on sweet thing, especially meringue/cream, in any guise.
Things then went downhill quickly. By Easter this year he could barely walk, was not eating and drinking very much, his speech was poor. TIA s were occurring several times a week - Easter in A&E anybody?. His dementia meds were then stopped by consultant. He went into respite care in April. After a tummy bug ( mine) chest infection (his), he stayed in care from end May. He went downhill even more and died at the end of July from chest infection. The death surprised people, even in the care home, at it's speed. Maybe a blessing, though.
So....most people develop a sweet tooth, though I don't think it just happens as last stage. ability to walk, well, his was complicated by vascular problems, but as you lose weight and get frail, it's not so easy to weightbear. Late stage, I would think. Constipation. He was always subject to it a bit, but at late/end stage the brain forgets what to do. I know OH did not always know how to do things like weeing and passing pooh.
I said the vascular dementia got the upper hand because he was having so many TIAs at the end.
Sorry, long answer to direct question. The problem with dementia is that if you've seen one person with dementia, you've seen one person with dementia. Meaning everybody is different. So what I've said may not apply to you. But there are similarities that occur, so you may be able to pick up the gist of what's going on.
Good luck!