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Alzheimer's Disease
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Posted 3/21/2013 1:13 PM (GMT 0)
I'm not sure where to begin. This is my first post to this forum. We are regulars on the Hep C forum. My husband is a liver transplant patient February 3, 2011, had a triple bypass in November 2012 and over the years I have experienced him at his worse due to medication sensitivities. My husband is 65.

Last Sunday night I had to call 911 because my husband was having conversations with imaginary people, hallucinating and he became very aggressive. He was hospitalized for 3 days.

This is not the first time he's experienced this (although he's never been aggressive before). His mother, in her 80's, before her death, had this same 'fuzziness'. This has been happening over the past 6-9 months (not every night - sometimes only once a week...but recently, it's more and more common).

He's fine during the day, and in the afternoon/evenings it's like a switch turns off. He paces, or sleeps and shouts, does strange things, basically is not there. Sundowners!

He was examined by a neurologist in the hospital and he was told he has early stages of dementia. Exactly what does that mean? I've done lots of research but it all seems so vague.

He was prescribed Serequel by his neurologist - and told it would either make him less confused or more confused. My husband is on so much medication due to the liver transplant, heart issues and diabetes......

I appreciate your time in reading this long post - any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

Pam
Posted 3/21/2013 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome to our forum.

There are two main types of dementia: Vascular dementia and Alzheimer's. Here's a website that tells you more about vascular dementia

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vascular-dementia/DS00934

What sort of information are you seeking?
Posted 3/21/2013 5:09 PM (GMT 0)
Is Sundowners Alzheimers?
What type tests are performed to confirm vascular?

My husband had 2 CAT scans and an MRI of the brain - the neurologist said he only saw normal aging.
Posted 3/21/2013 6:26 PM (GMT 0)
Sundowners is a symptom of Alzheimer's and dementia. It is not a separate condition on it's own because it's usually seen in dementia patients.

Vascular dementia can be hard to diagnose but if it's caused by strokes or "mini" strokes, damage can sometimes be seen on testing such as a CT scan and MRI. Alzheimer's usually produces plaque like deposits on the brain and may not show up until much later.

If his testing came back good, sometimes dementia can also be seen in people who are deficient in minerals or vitamins and possibly from medications. Did you happen to notice an increase of confusion when starting a certain medicine?
Posted 3/21/2013 6:27 PM (GMT 0)
http://sundownerfacts.com/sundowners-syndrome/
Posted 3/21/2013 8:15 PM (GMT 0)
My Dad began having symptoms of Alzheimer's not long after having surgery to place a stent in a blood vessel leading to his heart. He was put on 7 or 8 medications following surgery, most of which had such horrible side effects that we weaned him off of all of them within a year. We thought his Alzheimer's symptoms might relate to these medications, but the symptoms never went away and in fact became worse once Dad was off the meds. His family doctor did some tests for dementia (drawing the clock and other diagrams, etc.) and referred him to a neurologist after he was unable to complete several of the tests. The rest is history. I frequently wonder if the surgery and medications brought the Alzheimer's to the forefront earlier than it would have appeared without them, or made more pronounced what, looking back in time prior to his surgery, may have been the very beginning of symptoms. I've read that the trauma of surgery can cause mental issues to become more pronounced, though I don't know if this is true. He hallucinates (people, kids, animals, contractors working on his house, walls falling down, etc.), has sundowner's syndrome most evenings, is sometimes up half the night rummaging through drawers, pulling his bedcovers off, etc. Dad also takes Seroquel, along with Exelon patch and Levodopa/Carbidopa. I don't think we know anymore whether he's better off with the meds, or would be better off without them. Sometimes I wish we could just stop all of them and see what happens!
Posted 3/29/2013 6:42 PM (GMT 0)
Any kind of injury or major trauma, like surgery can worsen and even speed up the issues with dementia. My FIL fell twice in the last 3 months of his life and after each fall, he got quite a bit worse.

It's possible that some of the dementia could be due to all the meds that he's on too. Look up the medicines online and read through all the precautions and such carefully. You can use a drug interaction checker - found online as well - to help you get through all of this more quickly. I like using drugs dot com, as they seem to have the most complete listings, but there are others.
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