My Mother, now 89, suffered 2 strokes in rapid succession (within 12 hours) last year and now has anterograde amnesia. Actually, according to the scans she had had at least one stroke prior to this event. This was probably about 3 years ago, which is when I first noticed the memory problems. I raised this memory issue with her then GP, and was told it was a normal part of aging, which I do not now believe. Even if it was, I feel very strongly that the GP was at fault for not making us aware of the possible problems of memory loss, specifically, that procedures should be put in place to ensure my DM took her hypertension medication. As it happens, that was one of the things she forgot, as I discovered when I cleaned her house while she was in hospital - masses of unused meds. Unsurprising, then, that she had the second and thrid stroke.
Anyway, I have never been informed that she has vascular dementia, but I assume that what she has comes under this classification. The one thing I was wondering is: is further decline inevitable? What if she never has another stroke? She is now properly medicated including anti-coagulants (she was taken off these several years ago by the aforementioned GP following a bout of anemia, and they were never re-instated). She is now living in an extra-care facility, so her carers giver her her meds, all her food is provided, and her cleaning and laundry are also done for her. Apart from the hypertension, she also has atrial fibrilation (sp?), cataracts, hemianopsia (half vision due to the stroke) and arthritis, but apart from all those things, she's in quite good health (looking at that list makes it seem unlikely, but you know what I mean). Medically, she's now being monitored very closely, so from that stand point, I really wonder how likely another stroke is.
I have always thought of dementia as a progressive illness, and while she has good and bad days, she is no worse than the day she came out of hospital.
Jennifer
Anyway, I have never been informed that she has vascular dementia, but I assume that what she has comes under this classification. The one thing I was wondering is: is further decline inevitable? What if she never has another stroke? She is now properly medicated including anti-coagulants (she was taken off these several years ago by the aforementioned GP following a bout of anemia, and they were never re-instated). She is now living in an extra-care facility, so her carers giver her her meds, all her food is provided, and her cleaning and laundry are also done for her. Apart from the hypertension, she also has atrial fibrilation (sp?), cataracts, hemianopsia (half vision due to the stroke) and arthritis, but apart from all those things, she's in quite good health (looking at that list makes it seem unlikely, but you know what I mean). Medically, she's now being monitored very closely, so from that stand point, I really wonder how likely another stroke is.
I have always thought of dementia as a progressive illness, and while she has good and bad days, she is no worse than the day she came out of hospital.
Jennifer