Knowing what to look for as far as physical symptoms I noticed slight symptons on my husband when he was 45. He is now 62. He is the
oldest child in his family and doing very well compared to a few of his younger siblings - one died a couple years ago and one is in a nursing home.
He is able to get ready on his own although it takes him alot longer than it used to - usually takes 3 hours for him to get ready if he is focused
on only that.
I still work and he stays home. I make sure he has meals and he needs no assistance in heating up or eating those meals.
He has been having balance issues the last few years, some days worse than others. He has fallen a few times. I am in the process of
figuring out what we can best do to help.
I like to go see the children or on short trips or to the lake. He always goes with me and enjoys it, however, he fights going most places anymore.
Once he does go he lets me know he was glad he did.
He was put on memantine about 1 1/2 years ago at a dose of .5 mg once a day. His memory problems weren't that bad at the time but I thought
it may help for the future.
My questions are: (1) he seems to have a very short short term memory most the time anymore. I may tell him something and he has to
ask a short time later many times. Would a higher dose of memantine possibly help?
(2) he constantly tells me he is "going downhill" and I know he feels that way. I try to stay positive and tell him that he is
doing so much better than most people in his situation at this point of the illness which I truly believe. When I ask him about going somewhere
with me a few days he tells me he falls and is going downhill. I tell him there are two of us - I will be with him rather than working and he
would do just fine. I wouldn't ask him to do what I felt he was unable to do. I know he enjoys these short trips and I want to keep doing them as
long as he is able. We had a COE tell him in May that he needs to do these things and that I would be there to help him.
Is there anything I can do to make him realize that he is able to do these things and that he is not as bad as he feels he is?
My concern is that as time goes on and he does get worse than he (we) will look back and be so sorry we didn't do these things.
I also feel that keeping him going helps him although I know it is harder on him as years go on.
Any ideas or input would be appreciated.
thank you.