Hello!
My mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimers which we first noticed around 12 years ago. Apart from mainly poor memory she was quite active and could easily walk 3 miles a day. Until, that is,she had a stroke two and a half years ago. The stroke left her with slight speech problems (though you can tell what she is saying most of the time) and problems walking (as it affected her left leg and arm). Up to a couple of months ago she could still walk approx 3-400m holding onto her wheelchair and could get up and down stairs by herself to go to the toilet.
Then 6-8 weeks ago mum had a slight cough and rapidly went downhill. She started sleeping for 18+ hours a day, hardly ate or drank anything, didn't talk much.
I should mention that she had been on trazodone at night for the past year to help her confusion/agitation and sleep but my sister, who is her full time carer, decided to withdraw the drug 3 weeks ago. Two weeks ago I had to go and look after mum for 2 weeks to give my sister a break and thought when I first saw mum she was entering the final stages.
However the day I was leaving, mum was up at 5am chatting away until 8am - normally I'd only get a few words or a sentence from her. She said she could hear my husband talking (he was asleep and not snoring!) about the lawnmowers. She was confused about where she was but not distressed. She got dressed and went down to have breakfast and even did a bit of vaccing.
My query is :-
How can someone who was heading towards being bedridden, suddenly and overnight become so much brighter, chattier and more mobile? I have read one story where this happened but there is very little on the internet that I can find so I'm interested to hear from others.
I'd also like to say what a fantastic job you carers are doing - such a devastating condition to deal with.
My mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimers which we first noticed around 12 years ago. Apart from mainly poor memory she was quite active and could easily walk 3 miles a day. Until, that is,she had a stroke two and a half years ago. The stroke left her with slight speech problems (though you can tell what she is saying most of the time) and problems walking (as it affected her left leg and arm). Up to a couple of months ago she could still walk approx 3-400m holding onto her wheelchair and could get up and down stairs by herself to go to the toilet.
Then 6-8 weeks ago mum had a slight cough and rapidly went downhill. She started sleeping for 18+ hours a day, hardly ate or drank anything, didn't talk much.
I should mention that she had been on trazodone at night for the past year to help her confusion/agitation and sleep but my sister, who is her full time carer, decided to withdraw the drug 3 weeks ago. Two weeks ago I had to go and look after mum for 2 weeks to give my sister a break and thought when I first saw mum she was entering the final stages.
However the day I was leaving, mum was up at 5am chatting away until 8am - normally I'd only get a few words or a sentence from her. She said she could hear my husband talking (he was asleep and not snoring!) about the lawnmowers. She was confused about where she was but not distressed. She got dressed and went down to have breakfast and even did a bit of vaccing.
My query is :-
How can someone who was heading towards being bedridden, suddenly and overnight become so much brighter, chattier and more mobile? I have read one story where this happened but there is very little on the internet that I can find so I'm interested to hear from others.
I'd also like to say what a fantastic job you carers are doing - such a devastating condition to deal with.