Alzheimer's or other illness effecting the brain

[peternap]

This question is for everyone but espeially the nurses here. Nurses alwaays know more about symptoms than those overpaid quacks.

I have a friend who is experiencing some strange behavior..He realizes it;s strange though. Alzheimer's was the first thing to come to mind. but with all the Alzheimer's victims I've known, they didn't realize it.

He's 60ish, some health problems...heart, etc. Doesn't drink or take drugs. Is not on any medication.

Basically, he forgets things. He has periods when he can't do simple math (like find the center of a board.
On short trips around town, he realizes he has no idea where he is.
A few months ago, he went to run an errand and when he came home, noticed he had two different shoes on.
The other day he went out and several hours later noticed he had not buckled his belt
Quite often, has to look at the calendar to know what day it is.
He leaves words out when typing and leaves letters out of words.

This is not all the time, but is getting more frequent.

To his credit, he hates Doctors and won't go see one.

Any thoughts (no pun intended) about this.

[desimulacra]

Hi,
Probably should not butt in but I dealt with Dad having strokes and am dealing with Mom having Alzheimer's so guess I might be of help. This sounds more like Dad he showed more symptoms similar to this. Or maybe Mom when her Meds get off.
Of course it is impossible to tell about Alzheimer's since it is not possible to diagnose but repeating things or as I say cycling is a common Alzheimer's symptom. Cycling (my term) involves repeating what ever they are saying or sometimes doing every so often. Mom as she gets worse decreases her cycle time. On bad days, under stress, she will ask the same question every 1-2 minutes.
However Stokes (mini-strokes) can be found and helped. My poor advice would be to get checked as they sometimes can help with this.

[peternap]

Your not butting in at all. I'm stumped but since he asked, I thought I would see what I could find.

I went through much the same situation as you. My mother, mother in law and father in law. The big difference in those is that while everyone realized they had a problem, none of them did. Though it could have been simple denial, each one swore they were fine and in fact, would get angry while insisting the incident didn't happen at all.

My mother in law once forgot to get dressed after taking a shower, while in the old folks home. She was headed out to go shopping.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

My thought would be mini-strokes, too. My grandma has had a few at least.  Sometimes we wonder if she is having more of them.  Her symptoms aren't really the same as Alzheimer's (as you said, she is aware that she is having problems whereas a lot of Alzheimer's patients aren't.)  She has lapses of sound judgement, forgetfulness like you mentioned, and what appears as being highly distractable.  For instance, she'll go to her room to change clothes and she's gone for half an hour because she starts up on something else after she gets in there... she'll notice the bathroom needs cleaned or see a good book and pick it up and start reading.  Sometimes, out of the blue, she'll have trouble getting the right words out... or call people by the wrong name when she knows better, and then is embarrassed because the words that came out were not what she intended to say.  A few weeks ago, she had agreed to meet my mom at the bank in town after she ran by the store.  Mom was supposed to go with her out to her mechanic's to drop off her car.  Mom was sitting there in the parking lot at the bank and saw grandma drive blithely right on home!  So she followed her home and asked, "I thought you were going to meet me at the bank?"  Grandma looked puzzled for a minute and then said, "Well, I guess I forgot."  She was bothered that she couldn't even recall the conversation they'd had about meeting at the bank, even though she remembered what she had done both before and after she had called mom.  Anyway, FWIW, that sounds like what it might be to me, but I'm not a nurse.  I did work in the Alzheimer's wing of a nursing home when I was in college, though, and it doesn't sound like most of those patients... they became highly paranoid and suspicious of everyone and everything, and even the milder ones were pretty mischievious... getting into stuff, making messes like little kids, flushing stuff down the toilet to see what would happen, etc.

Best wishes to your friend.

[desimulacra]

Homegrown is right on! Those sound like Mom.

A lady was sitting at a red light with an elderly friend when they ran the light. The friend turned to the driver and asked why she ran the light the reply was....

drum roll, but no joke.
I didn't know I was driving!

Sorry but if I did not joke about this once in a while I would go crazy!!

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Homegrown is right on! Those sound like Mom.

A lady was sitting at a red light with an elderly friend when they ran the light. The friend turned to the driver and asked why she ran the light the reply was....

drum roll, but no joke.
I didn't know I was driving!

Sorry but if I did not joke about this once in a while I would go crazy!!

I think you have to keep a sense of humor about it or you can very quickly go crazy. Our next door neighbor in WI was taking care of her mom who probably has Alzheimer's... she was nearing a breakdown because she'd get so angry over her mom asking the same questions over and over again and because her mom wouldn't remember stuff from one minute to the next.   She posted big signs all over the house that said, "Flush toilet!" and "Turn off the light!"  and "Wash your hands!" and "Mom, do NOT use the stove!" 

When I worked in the nursing home when I was in college, I worked the 11PM to 7AM shift.  You'd think those old folks would sleep at night, but no!  One night, I caught two ladies in the activity room which had been left unlocked by accident.  The one lady was blind as well as suffering dementia, and the other one could be pretty fiesty and was still in good physical shape even though her mind was pretty much gone.  I could hear them giggling down at the end of the hall and see them running back and forth now and then, but there were beds to change and people to take care of before I got down there, so I took my time getting there.  When I finally got to their end of the hall, I walked in to the activity room and asked what they were up to.  They turned with guilty written all over their faces and burst into giggles and said, "Polishing the furniture!"  They had "polished" everything in the room (walls, windowsills, furniture, etc.) with pieces of chocolate cake the day shift people had left in the activity room.  The one lady was naked and I asked her where her clothes were.  She said, "Well, I was trying to soak up that puddle of water over there!"  She pointed to the bathroom and I went in to see she'd taken the top of the toilet tank off and  stuffed all her clothes in it in order to "soak up the puddle".   I couldn't help it.  I busted up laughing, and they laughed right along with me, even though I'm not sure that they knew why I was laughing. 

Another time, I went into an elderly man's room to help him get up for the day, and as I came in, I said, "Good morning, Fred!  Time to get up and get your dancing shoes on!"  Fred scratched his head and grinned, "But, I don't even know how to dance!"  As I helped him get his shoes on, he sat there with a sheepish look on his face for a minute and said, "I can't believe a sweet young thing like you would want to dance with me!"  After I helped him to his feet, he grabbed one hand and put his other arm around me an we started waltzing.  We waltzed all over his room and out into the hall, much to the amusement of my co-workers.  To this day, that is one of my best memories of working there. 

They could be the most frustrating people to work with, but at the same time it was amazing the parts of their memories that were still totally intact.  There was a woman who always thought I was her little sister.  I went along with it because she'd cry if I told her I wasn't, and even though we were told to never play along with the delusions,  it just wasn't right to do that to her.  One night when I was looking for her some clean socks, I found an old picture of her in the drawer.  She looked like a Coca-cola girl with big blonde curls and blue eyes in her Navy uniform.  I asked her, "Pat, is this you?"  She said, "Yeah... you remember when Daddy came to see us off?  He bought me that blue blouse with the mother of pearl buttons as a gift.  I think I still have that somewhere... you remember that big storm that hit when we were at sea?  I've never prayed so hard in my life."  I always wished that she'd told me the whole story, but she drifted off to sleep before she finished it.