My father passed away on Thanksgiving and I am still trying to make sense of his illness. He was diagnosed with dementia. My understanding is the 70% of all dementia patients have alzheimers but was not a definitive diagnosis. How do we know whether it was actually alzheimers. Also, he had falls that exacerbated his condition. I was with him a couple of times when he appeared to faint with his eyes open and non-responsive. Then he would return consciousness. Could these have been strokes? Or just simple fainting from the effort. His first most serious fall resulted in a brain injury. He was wearing 3 sweaters on a 90 degree day, which is typical of dementia... but why the subsequent falls with the blank stares and non responsiveness. I still have not received a conclusive answer to all my questions. Any insight here would be appreciated. Thanks so much.
But, are you worried about stones you left unturned, worried about yourself, or worried about Mom now??
My husband had Lewy Body Dementia (confirmed via autopsy). His falls did not follow a typical pattern and when I described them in detail his neurologist and also his sleep-specialist psychiatrist thought he might be suffering "narcoleptic-like" episodes of sudden loss of muscle tone (cataplexy). That has never been confirmed, but treating him for that did magically stop the falling.
As you can tell, the whole topic of dementia is very complex. You may never get all the answers you want, but I certainly hope you can find most of the major ones.
My condolences on your father's recent death.