Is there a time line for the latter stages?

[souwesterly]

Hi folks,
I'm new here, so, as other's have said, please excuse me if I'm in the wrong place! And if so, my thanks to the mods who'll probably put me right!

My mother has Alzheimer's or dementia - and at 90 (her birthday was on Friday last week) she hardly knows what's going on around her. She lives in her own little world, only surfacing occasionally. Conversations can't exist - the best thing she seems to appreciate is a hug or a hand to hold.

She began showing signs of major forgetfulness and some odd behaviour back in 2003 when my father died, leaving her living alone after almost 60 years of marriage.
At the end of 2006 I bought a house for her near me where she lived until 2011. Increasingly I had to sort out her little problems and then progressively hire in cleaners, cooks and carers - until she fell and broke her hip.
When she was due to leave hospital she was assessed and it was considered that she needed full time home care or to be in a home and in January 2012, she moved to a lovely little care home where she remains still.
Apart from managing to break her other hip too, physically she's excellent for her age - but mentally......that's another story. She can still feed herself, with a bit of help but she needs help with most other activities and she became incontinent last year.

So what I would like to know is, is there a kind of time line that can reveal how much longer she'll survive? Not that I'm trying to get rid of her!
How do they go downhill from here?
Do all Alzheimer's sufferers go down the same pathway?
How far do they all regress?
Etc.....?
I don't even know what questions to ask, really!

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a section in this website all about this situation - if so, a link to it would be great. And any other information will be much appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Shash7677]

Hi Souwesterly and welcome to TP.

I'm not sure there's any hard and fast rule regarding how long a person will survive with AD and from what I've read most of the time when people do pass away AD isn't the primary cause of their passing.

My mum has AD, diagnosed October 2011 aged 66. By July 2012 she was admitted to a psychiatric assessment unit and then after 7 weeks she was discharged into care. She has been in her current NH since September 2012. She has very little recollection of who any of us are, she repeats certain words or phases, she gets agitated some days and other days she just lays in bed. Some days she eats other days she doesn't its all according to her mood.

She tended to go downhill rapidly before her diagnosis and after, then plateaued for a bit, then nose dived again. So as you can see mums onset has been fairly rapid. Other will tell you that their loved ones can still function in their own homes with help 18months after diagnosis. It's all according the person and I so think age plays a part. Mums CPN told us that the earlier the onset the more rapidly the disease progresses, I have however only her word for this so I have to believe her.

Others will be along soon with more support, answers and advice and will have much more experience than I do.

Take care, keep posting.

Sharon

 

[nita]

Sorry to hear you Mum is so poorly. I found the following on an American website:

"When a person with Alzheimer’s disease enters the later stages, especially after the ability to walk independently is lost, the average life expectancy is about one year. Of those persons who also suffer from fever or infection, or those who have suffered a hip fracture, more than half will have died within six months."

http://www.americanhospice.org/arti...ase-and-other-brain-diseases-and-hospice-care

This is an average and I believe there are people who have posted on the site whose relatives have lasted longer, I am not sure if this is a blessing or a curse.

However, if your mother can still feed herself maybe that suggests she is not yet in the late stage. There seem to be so many variations with this illness, some people retaining some abilities, others different ones, and behaviour too seems so variable that it is probably hard to give an exact timeline.

You are doing the right thing, being with her and comforting her as much as you can.

If you go to Alzheimer's Society Resources on the top right of the site above, you will see a link to the Alzheimer's Society website which will in turn lead you to a lot of information. A link to the factsheets is below:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200137