Husband 44 may have AD - Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia Message Board

Lelore · 08-14-2006, 10:36 AM

Hi,

I'm new to the AD board.

My DH is 44. We have been married for a little over 14 years and have 2 children - DS is almost 11 and DD is 8. Over the last year there have been many changes in my husband. He has lived with depression for all of his adult life. He is typically a very conservative, quiet person. Last summer and into the fall, his personality began to change slightly. He became a little more loose with money and became much more social. Then in January, he became depressed again. He was very behind at work (he had a high stress fairly demanding job). He became more and more disorganized and unproductive. He kept making excuses for his faillings "I'm doing the work of 2 people. My boss doesn't support me. We don't have a secretary. etccc"

So, given those changes, bipolar disorder seemed to fit. He became more and more paranoid over the next few months. He had to be hospitalized, because he became somewhat aggressive. He was hospitalized for a week. When he came home, he was very nervous and would withdraw into the bedroom for long periods of time. We found out shortly after that he had a blood clot restricting food digestion. He could not hold down solid foods. He had surgery and this situation was corrected. Now, he eats what he wants and has gained the weight back that he lost.

That's the history of where we've been so far over the last year. Now, he can not remember anything. He struggles to do even the simplest tasks. For example, I asked him to put some towels up that I washed this weekend. He carried the towels upstairs and put a couple up, but then forgot what he was doing.

He stays very nervous and anxious and asks me the same questions over and over every day. I have to remind/instruct him to take a shower/shave. He does not want to be out in public at all. He becomes even more clingy to me than normal. He is afraid that he will get lost.

At his last psych appointment, we got the results of some genetic testing that his doctor had ordered. He has a mutated gene(?) APOE-E4? This means that he has an increased risk of having ad.

They also took him out of the room and did a test for dementia. I don't know what the test was called or how they conducted it. He scored a 22. I don't really know what this means except that he has dementia.

He is having a PET scan done this morning to (I guess) rule out any other potential cause for the dementia.

He has had cat scans (which did not show a problem) and a brain MRI. The MRI showed shrinkage of the brain - but I have been told that this is normal for a person in his 40s.

He hasn't worked since April. Does this sound like AD to you guys? As far as medications, he is on clozaril and paxil for the bipolar. I'm not aware of either of these causing the symptoms he is having now.

Lelore

Martha H · 08-14-2006, 12:28 PM

Not in my unprofessional opinion. It seems that it came on way too fast. Dementia usually has such a gradual start that you can't even tell when it began .. until you think back at small signs that 'something' could be wrong.

This seems a very very rapid onset ... I suspect that in his depressive episodes he may have taken or still be taking some prescription drugs that are causing memory problems as a side effect.

This is very hard to prove - going off a drug doesn't remove all of it from your system for many weeks or months. Yet you might want to ask his doctor to try a different medication for his 'episodes'.

I sympathize with you and hope that the tests will bring clarity. In my experience, dementia was diagnosed after all other possible causes were ruled out and they still didn't know what was happening. Thyroid disorders, tumors, other sytemic diseases, even a vitamin or mineral deficiency, blood clots or bleeding in the brain. When nothing physical can be measured or proved, they go by the person's behavior, answers on tests , etc.

Good luck - I do hope it's something else, something curable!!

love,

Martha

georgie04 · 08-14-2006, 01:07 PM

Hi LeLore, and welcome.

I agree with Martha in that there would be a lot of other things to eliminate first, and, given his recent history, it seems some or all of what has been going on could be contributing. I am sure they are checking for things like B12 deficiency?

The test you mention is probably the one called Mini Mental State Examination - if you google MMSE you can find out more about it and what the score means.

This must be a very worrying time for you - I hope that further tests will lead you to a 'fixable' cause of these symptoms.

Georgie

angel_bear · 08-14-2006, 05:54 PM

If it is early onset Dementia (and it's not unheard of in the 40's) it can be a particularly rapid descent ... from diagnosis to final stages can take between 5 - 10 years.

Brain shrinkage in your 40's is NOT typical .. 60's .. yes, 40's no .. not so that its noticeable on scans anyway.

How is his speech? How is he dressing? How are his toilet habits?

Speech tends to go haywire unfortunately, which makes the whole job of 'caring' just that little bit more difficult, because what's going on inside THEIR head is perfectly NORMAL to them, but to us .. it's erratic behaviours.

Is he layer dressing? Has he stopped wearing singlets? Changed underwear (or not wearing any at all? Free balling my ex-husband used to call it LOL) sometimes the way we dress get's all too much ..

Are you noticing any 'skid' marks (out of character bowel movement remnants on underwear)? Urine staining? Hoarded dirty clothes stashed away in wrong places?

Is he taking anti-depressants and if so is he taking them properly? Could he be overdosing at all ?? That could make for episodes too.

And as the other girls have mentioned, Vitamin B12 deficiency mimic's dementia, thyroid disease does too.. Lord knows what boy hormones can do (we know what girl hormones do to us LOL) .. there are many other precipitating factors that need to be taken into account before Early Onset is finally diagnosed ....

But don't go down the 'river of denial' if it is the case, get Power of ATtorney done NOW .. get a living will done NOW .. get's his wishes for end of life done NOW ... cross all the T's, dot all the i's, while you still have time, and LOVE HIM TO PIECES while you still have time .......

It is a much harder and rockier road with early onset .. my heart goes out to you.

Hugs
Sally

Lelore · 08-14-2006, 08:29 PM

Thank you for your responses. He did have a blood work up done at the end of June. His thyroid was normal as was other hormones. The only thing out of the ordinary on that panel was his blood glucose level. It was pretty low.

He went through a period of a couple of weeks where he could not get dressed without instruction. He would sit on the end of the bed and say "what do I do". Now, I just ask him to get dressed and he does. Although, some of his clothing choices are a little different. He frequently wears his bathing suit instead of shorts and if he is going anywhere outside the house, he gets dressed as if going to work - which is more formal than he needs to be.

He goes to the bathroom all of the time. He is constantly drinking water or chewing on ice (a new habit) which makes him have to pee a lot. One night last week, he got up about an hour after going to bed and had fallen on the floor. He said he was lost and couldn't find the bathroom. I helped him up and to the bathroom, but he had wet himself a little that night. He passes gas in front of anyone and everyone now. He has no modesty about that and he used to be very modest.

He has always hid dirty clothes. He leaves a lot on the floor (he's always been a bit of a slob), but there was always more hidden. I would think I was almost done with laundry and he would bring out this big pile from nowhere.

I know I need to act on the power of attorney thing. I just can't bring myself to do it. For the most part, everything is in my name and his. Prior to his surgery, he had a will completed - so I do have that.

There is so much to think about and figure out. It gets extremely overwhelming. His parents and I have been wandering if we have missed symptoms over the years because of the other mental health issues. So many mental illnesses have such similar symptoms.

Thank you for your input. It helps a lot. I never thought I would be dealing with this at mine and his ages - if it is AD. Of course, I never thought I would be dealing with any type of illness such as this. I don't think you ever expect it and are prepared for it.

Lelore

oh yeah, as far as his meds go.... he gets only what I give him. All his medications are locked up and only I have the key to the safe. I had to do this a month or so ago to ensure that he wasn't getting mixed up and taking another dose because he forgot he had already taken it, etc...

He is only on Clozaril (an anit-psychotic) and a low dose of paxil right now. Clozaril can have a serious side effect of lowering white blood cell counts so he has to have a cbc panel done once every 2 weeks to stay on the drug. I have not read anywhere about side effects related to confusion. I'm not sure about paxil.