Hello all, my FIL has been unofficially diagnosed with Alzheimers/Dementia.
He is 90 yo.
When his was nearly 80, he suffered a heart attack and had 6 bypasses and a replaced heart valve. He spent a month in the hospital, miraculously survived and came out slower and older, but seemingly unscathed mentally. That year they moved into our town because Mom "didn't want to do something like that again without help."
They lived in their own home for 3 years and moved to Independent Living because Dad was tired of taking care of the yard and Mom tired of looking after the house.
Dad started to have trouble walking and it was becoming obvious that he was struggling to look after their accounts/bills.
He ended up in the hospital for 10 day in the Spring of 2018 for appendicitis (fought with antibiotics). Rehab for 3 weeks. Really never the same after that.
Moved to Assisted Living with Mom.
Fall of 2018, had his appendix removed! Rehab for a month.
Absolutely, not even close to the same man. Wheelchair bound. All of his daily living activities are attended by those where he lives.
My question---did those of your loved ones with ALZ/Dementia have hospitalizations and ill health before things got bad? Do folks in great health (overall) just slowly develop ALZ without some sort of medical incident?
As for developing Alzheimer's without any pre-existing condition, that's her. She has no heart trouble, nor high BP, diabetes or any other illness or condition.
She smoked for 45 years.
It was noticible when she turned 90 and had a lumpectomy on her breast. I don't believe her dementia worsened due to the procedure.
The elderly are very susceptible to confusion and debilitation after surgeries. It seems the more surgery, the more the post-op confusion.
While a stroke may be a precursor to Vascular Dementia, who knows what was happening before Alzheimers started developing 27 years ago? In the "stages" for dementia the first is often listed as no impairments. That is, an autopsy at this point might show the plaques and tangles have already started, but there were no obvious symptoms yet.
I think it possible (this is just speculation on my part) that if the dementia impairments have already started developing in the brain, then some trauma may bring some symptoms to the surface. But having appendicitis, for example, does not cause plaques and tangles (or other abnormalities such as the mutant protein bodies of LBD) to form in the brain.
As far as science seems to know so far, it is possible to develop ALZ without some sort of medical incident.