Unfortunately Tom's symptoms are a result of the damage the disease is doing to his brain.... I understand the confusion some people have over the fact Tom is convincing in his stories and goes out of his way to prove there is nothing wrong with his memory as he and everyone else feel there can't be anything wrong because he "can remember"...............and his stories ARE convincing.
HELLO!!!!!!! To those who have NOT bothered to learn anything about Alzheimer or any related dementia live in the false belief we are discussing "MEMORY ISSUES ONLY"
With Alzheimer, memory is one of the first symptom that makes you realize what the issue might be..... That's usually after living with and dealing with or not , with the behavior changes that creep in ........
What else you might not know IS that the first symptoms of dementia start out looking like Alzheimer and as it progresses the symptoms than appear or not that points to a variant of another dementia and or an entirely different one.....
Diagnosis is largely made by an experienced neurologist base on symptoms......and what skills and functions they are losing.... and in what order.
ALL dementias take you down the same basic road of loss of brain function to the point of death. Rate at which one travels this journey varies...... the path it takes through ones brain varies.....medication to help through the symptoms varies....... What is inevitable is DEATH.
So that is where we are..... The parts of Tom's brain that is damaged by what ever dementia Tom has, which now is appearing to be different than Alzheimer or a variant of another with it..... What ever the case is the result of the diseases is ....... apathy, sleep issues, anger issues, inability to reason, lack of judgment, he shadows....... the list goes on BUT for all that he has lost, his memory is better (BUT not good) than it should be if it was Alzheimer...... and his stories are SO BELIEVABLE!
So what is killing him? In the past year he quit doing what little he was that may have given him some exercise.... He now walks from his bed to the kitchen table and the bathroom. (We have a small home)..... out side he gets on his 4-wheeler that he parks by the door to go anywhere in the yard......
He has a cigarette in his mouth day and night except for when food or drink is going in his mouth. When he can't breath he grabs a cigarette, same with chest pain or anything else......
The rest should be self explanatory.... No oxygen =- heart damage = heart failure.....
No exercise = XYZ
The results of the tests at the hospital showed he did NOT have a heart attack or congested heart failure.... his oxygen ran low.....his sodium and potassium were a bit low....... And he more than likely has emphysema as his lungs were diminished.
ON discharge he heard..... No heart attack.. no congested heart failure, the swelling was gone ...... he was in GREAT SHAPE and could go home and smoke all he wanted and drink all he wanted and his salt intake was no big deal.....because he was just fine! Here is where I bang my head against the wall.
Tom has a follow up with his own doctor, stress test was ordered and a sleep apnea study. All we can do is see where this takes us..... You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink........
Tom blames his weight gain on medications.....
He went on Aricept in 2007..... his weight gain started 5/26/10 he weighed 223 lb and by 9/17/10 he weighed 240 lb.......4/21/11 he weighed 261 lbs and now weighed out at 271 with water weight included........
His other meds that he claims put on ALL the weight was started in Jan. of 2011
