It is important to recognize the early signs of dementia. Learn why in this episode.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352013
https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/stages-behaviors/early-stage
Katherine Cocks00:03
Welcome to knowledge for caregivers. My name is Kathy, the host of this podcast. Since I have been a geriatric nurse for almost 10 years helping seniors age in place, I'm going to give you the knowledge that I used to help my own family, so you can help your family welcome back to this podcast, where we're going to talk about the early stages of dementia, why it is important to see your local health care provider to get a diagnosis and to find out the cause of the dementia. When I talk about dementia, that basically means memory loss. Dementia is like a big category. For instance, if I say I have a pet dog, you're probably then going to ask me, Is it a Labrador, a poodle, or golden retriever? Well, that's what dementia is, is the big category. And then there are a lot of diagnosis underneath that, like Alzheimer's, Lewy Body disease or vascular dementia. One of the reasons that it's important to get an early diagnosis of dementia is that like for Alzheimer's, there's actually medication that they can take that will help extend their independence. For vascular dementia. If we can manage a person's blood pressure, blood sugar, or keep them from throwing any more clots, they may not have any further deterioration of their memory, what are things to look forward to see that your loved one is experiencing more dementia symptoms versus just kind of normal aging memory. As people get older, many things in their bodies don't function as well, their joints don't function as well, their heart doesn't function as well. And their memory doesn't function as well. There's a difference between memory problems with normal aging and memory problems with dementia. One of the first things that many times family members will see is the area of judgment and decision making. I once did an assessment on a lady she passed her memory test that we do to screen for dementia. But when I talked to her son, she had no concept of money and reality. For instance, she had put a lot of money down to move into an assisted living, the contract said she could get that money back. If she left before 30 days, she waited till after the 30 days, she lost a lot of money. In the meantime, she then was upset to the facility to court lost that case, because she didn't follow the contract and lost more money, then she began to believe that God would give her back that money. She was constantly getting mailers that would say, Hey, if you send $1 here, $1 there, you can get entered into a raffle. And she had all these things categorized. And she spent all day working on these believing that God would give her back her money. Now she wasn't like that before. And that was a sign that she was beginning to struggle with some type of dementia. Now an older person may sometimes make a bad decision. Older people can sometimes get really stubborn about what they want. But this is a consistent habit where you see that they're not making good decisions. The second problem that many people with dementia will have is they are no longer able to handle their money, for instance, the checkbook, they might write bad checks, they might carry around large sums of money. And this would be something that is a change for them. My mother in law, I love her. She can't balance a checkbook and never has since she was 20 years old. I would not take that as a sign of dementia. My father in law, he has dementia, he can kind of balance it but she has to look over his shoulder to make sure he doesn't sometimes write a check two or three or four times because he's forgotten that he written the check. This is time when many people with dementia will be scammed out of their money. That's why it's very important to notice these signs too in order to preserve your loved ones assets. This is a time when you have older parents to begin to say Hey, can one of us just have access to your online banking account so we can keep track and make sure that if something does happen to you, we can catch it right away and see when they are being scammed out of money for normal aging. An older person may occasionally miss a payment or something like that. That is not dementia. Another area that a person with dementia struggles with is the concept of time. That's a many reasons that a dementia person may put a coat on in the summer. They don't know what season it is. You may come in and they think it's back in 1996. You may ask them who the president is or who the Prime Minister is and they may go back 1012 years ago now normal aging is someone may not know that it's today's September 26 2020, they may not know the exact date, you know, they're not going to work write down the date all the time, but they know it's probably September. And who can forget the year 2020 conversation can also become a problem for those with dementia. Many times, they will start to forget many words, they might forget what a pencil is. And they'll say, you know, the thing that you write with that has led, they may begin to realize, hey, they're not making sense, but they hide it. And many of their sentences will jump around where they'll talk about the dog. And then they talk about the sky. And then the next thing, they're talking about painting a room. And they just mix all that together, because they can't remember where they started in their train of thought. Now, normal aging is just to forget a word here or there. And that is not something to totally be concerned about. The other problem that people with dementia struggle with, is losing things. We all lose our keys, we all forget where we park, older people probably misplace things more than younger people. But if they don't have dementia, they've learned to set up a system. Like I know, I'm not gonna remember where I put my kids, if I don't always put them in the same spot. My 20 year old kids, they don't really think about that. They just put it anywhere, and they never can find them. What happens with older people, is they put something somewhere, but they cannot even remember for a long time where it is, then they accuse people of stealing it. Because their memory from three weeks ago was they had $20 in their wallet, and now it's gone. So therefore somebody had to steal it. Also, they will think, Oh, this is a really special item. And then they will go hide it because they think people are stealing stuff. And then you definitely can't find it after that performing common tasks can be another problem for people with dementia. I went to a Thanksgiving dinner with some family and friends. And I'll be honest with you in America, Thanksgiving, Turkey, breasts can be a little dry sometimes. And I looked up and I was like, Oh, is there not any gravy? I was trying to be polite. And the host said, we don't really need gravy, do we? I said, Well, I always kind of like gravy. And I knew my husband liked gravy. So didn't want to be too pushy. And what I realize she had forgotten how to make gravy. And her daughter was trying to cover for her. And I just said, oh, you know what, if you just get me the stuff, I'll make the gravy. And don't worry about it. My mom told me because she had known this lady a long, long time. She goes she has always been a fabulous cook, and has always known how to make gravy. That was a big red flag for me that this woman was beginning to experience some dementia, dementia, people will quit doing their hobbies because they've just forgotten how to do their woodwork, they may have forgotten how to change the light bulb, they may have forgotten how to change the oil in the car. So they just quit doing it. Now it is common as people get older to sometimes give up their hobbies just because physically they cannot do them anymore. They also may want things done a certain way and get irritable about it. That's kind of normal aging. The other thing that we look at with dementia is mood changes. The way I best describe it to people is I don't know if you've ever left like a huge, huge mall or department store, and you kind of are walking outside and you're momentarily confused about where you park just that split second where you're confused. That's how a dementia person feels all day long. It must be exhausting. No wonder they have mood problems. It's very, very trying for them to constantly feel confused and disoriented. And yet, they're still able to many times live independently. As I've said with normal aging, most people might be more controlling, they might be a little more irritable, but they don't have that total confusion and mood change that they normally don't have. Lastly, what we see with many people with dementia is that they will begin to withdraw from social activities. They'll stop going to church, they might start going to their bridge games. Many times they will stop going on vacation. The reason for this is they can't keep up with the conversation. They don't understand what is going on. Recently, I have a lady that I know that I suspect has dementia. She was reading something and she said and we don't know if we will come up and bear arms and it was obvious he was talking about bearing arms as in holding guns. Then she started flapping her arms because wonder what they're talking about. Maybe they're just talking about our physical arms. classic sign of dementia was that she no longer understood what they were talking about. Therefore, people laugh or do something that makes them feel not good about themselves. The older dementia person will withdraw many times older people will withdraw just because physically maybe they can't hear as well. Maybe they don't see things very well.
Katherine Cocks09:59
Maybe they I can't get transportation, it's important to find out why they are withdrawing. As I said, there are different kinds of dementia. There's the kind, Alzheimer's, which is plaques and tangles in your brain, it will continue to deteriorate. But vascular dementia is when there's been some damage to the nerves because you didn't get good blood flow, say from a stroke from chronic hypertension, it is definitely one of those that you can continue to do preventive medication to keep them functioning at the normal level. Always call the doctor ahead of time before the client comes if you have concerns, and your loved one is getting upset when you talk about their memory. That way you can alert the nurse and say, hey, my dad's having memory problems. This is things we're observing and it can be entered into the chart. Because it's very awkward to sometimes say those things in front of the person, they begin to get very angry and defensive. And then ask sometimes the United States you have to be a little bit persistent to make that happen. Again, it's really important to get an early diagnosis of dementia for many reasons. Next week, I'm going to talk about what to do once you have that early diagnosis. But first you need to know what is going on. All information is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to replace medical advice. Thank you for listening to this podcast knowledge for caregivers. You can check out my website, www.kathysconsulting.com or send me any questions at my email info@kathysconsulting.com Do not forget to leave me a review of this podcast or give suggestions for other shows. Thank you to all the dedicated caregivers out there