Neurological Symptoms
Posted , 3 users are following.
My husband has finally opened up to me about the new neurological symptoms he's been having over the last year, some symptoms the last 2 years. After he told our daughter in law and myself we told him we began to notice symptoms a couple months ago. Here is a list of symptoms he's been experiencing. 1. Short term memory loss. 2. Communication. 3. Mood swings. 4. Apathy. 5. Confusion. 6. He's having a difficulty following a story line. 7. Vision. 8. Depression. 9. Roaming/wondering. 10. Sleeping issues/disorders. When we went online and looked up the symptoms he was experiencing that's when various dementia websites popped up and as he was able to describe to us what he was going through it pretty much matched up word for word the lists in these websites, thats where I was able to get most of these, a lot easier then writing out his descriptions in detail of each one. My question is this. I'm pretty confident after reading some of these websites that once our doctor sees this list of symptoms he will refer my husband to whoever he needs to for the next step to test whether or not my husband has dementia and if so which one. I can say some of these symptoms were noticed ourselves but like my husband thought it had to do with his previous neurological issues. His communication, our daughter in law noticed 3 years ago that my husband would repeat words and pause while talking like his brain was doing a word search. The two big symptoms are his short term memory loss I know has become a lot worse over the last year and a half his communication now is a lot worse. When we read the detailed descriptions in the websites for dementia 9 out of 10 matched my husbands symptoms perfectly. I too am scared and worried for me and for him and for us. Please let me know if anyone can what the testing for dementia entails, how long it takes to get a diagnosis, treatment everything anyone can provide. Thanks.
0 likes, 5 replies
mike09523 Jon8181
Posted
What medication does your husband take?
A couple of years ago I was referred to a senior memory clinic with exactly the same symptoms. After an hour of tests and talks my physiciatrist declared that we should prepare ourselves for an onset of vascular dementia. He then made an appointment for me to have a mri brain scan, to see how much damage may be present. After several weeks of being for the mri and waiting for the results, I was told that my brain was fine and that all my memory problems etc was down to my medications, especially the Amatriptaline that I took at night.
Hope you get sorted soon,
Mike.
Jon8181 mike09523
Posted
Mike, thanks for your quick response. My husband takes approximately 26 medications per day, which includes his morning and night dose, to list them all right now will take some time. He's had multiple Ischemic Lacunar and thrombosis strokes, he's been diagnosed with Complex and Simple Partial Seizure Disorders, white matter disease, and last year when they performed an MRI brain scan regarding his seizures because he's had the Lacunar strokes, which are strokes in the small blood vessels that's when they found he also had changes to his CSVD (Cerebral Small Vessel Disease) which causes vascular dementia. But I will definitely take another look at his medication list. Thanks again.
lily65668 Jon8181
Posted
Hi Jon,
I'm a little bit confused. Just four days ago you and I had a conversation in these boards following an initial post from you which started:
Quote:
The last few months I've noticed some additional symptoms I've been having more then usual. I'm a 64-year old make. I've had multiple Ischemic Thrombosis & Lacunar Strokes, I've been diagnosed with Complex and Simple Partial Seizure Disorder, White Brain Matter disease, CSVD, Cerebrovascular Disease, I've had a couple of heart attacks, 12-stent placements, Coranary Artery disease, type 2 diabetes, Peripheral Neuropathy in both feet and hands, sciatica in my lower back. Yes I have it all. Last March 2017 my Neurologist told me the reason for my short term memory loss is due to my strokes but he never explained to me anything about short term memory loss.
Unquote
Jon8181 lily65668
Posted
Lily, I hope I sent my reply to you correctly. I'm just making sure. Have a blessed day and I apologize for any confusion. After I told my wife what was going on I didn't expect her to react this way. The last time I told her anything I had taken our dog Sissy out in the middle of the night and let her go per. I brought her back in the house she jumped up on the bed I lift up the cov6 and she crawled under them. That's the last thing I remember. The next thing I know I wake up outside sitting on my walker. I don't know how long I've been out there. The next morning I told my wife and she said oh ok. That's it. If it was meant and that happened to her I'd say really get dressed we are going to the hospital now that's not normal, sleep walking maybe but that lets go. She acted like you want another cookie?
Jon8181
Posted
Yes that is me. I finally had the courage to share with my wife and daughter in law all of the new symptoms I've been having since I noticed they began. After I told them they both told me they had already been seeing things the last couple months. My wife reminded me that when we saw my Neurologist March 2017 he diagnosed me with short term memory loss due to all the strokes I've had. I said yes I remember but I was having memory loss issues a year before that and she asked how do you remember that I said I've been writing everything in my journal over the past 4 years. I told her that neurologist never explained to us what short term memory loss is so all I had to go on was what I wrote in my journal and from there my memory symptoms became worse then I started having other symptoms. So it was easier to write it out then try to give each new symptom a label and then try to describe what I was going through. Little did I know that my daughter in law had been keeping kind of a journal on the changes she saw. I tried so hard to hide all of it from everyone and all along they kind of knew. One very difficult thing happened the other day. Our youngest son Michael stopped by the house from work and when he came into the kitchen I didn't recognize him. Another thing happened. That same neurologist we saw last year. I pulled out his paperwork and in it he wrote that when the hospital did an MRI brain scan on me the month before the saw I had the ischemic Lacunar strokes and that there were "Changes to my Small Vessel Disease. Well I didn't even know I had that and I we didn't know what it was until my wife did a search on the internet and found that the #2 dementia is vascular dementia and is can be caused by having changes to your small vessel disease. She got pretty mad. So right now she's really involved and she asked me questions I couldn't answer so that's why she used my deal here to try and get some answers. I tried to calm her down. I told her and my daughter in law before I told them of my symptoms that I'm not saying I have anything all I have is a bunch of symptoms that are getting worse and happening more that's it. Oh, I also have dealt with dizziness, balance issues and falling down on a daily basis for the past 5 years, headaches came in 2 years ago. That same neurologist tested me and stated about my Gait I have wide-base ataxia. Now I've been begging everyone for help but nobody has an answer. We looked that up. My walking is similar to a person who has cerebellar disease. We looked that up and some of the symptoms are dizziness, balance issues and falling down and headaches. We are so sick and tired of these doctors.