Sundowning… dementia

I learned something again today at the hospital.  Dad most likely have Sundown syndrome brought on by either the steroids he’s taking for the infection in his lungs. The nurse explained to me that he was a model patient today but however, last night he was in a “combative” mood.  Imagine that 45% of patients with Alzheimer has this syndrome.  2nd only to “wandering” and sometimes both. 

I am beginning to understand a bit more regarding Alzheimer too… the part about them not remembering.  It’s like a memory card… the patient starts “erasing” his foremost memory until he/she regresses back to his childhood.  Therefore, if my Dad erases his memory to the point where I wasn’t even born yet, he won’t remember me because his brain has deleted anything that happened up to that point.  When he reaches the point before he met my Mom then he won’t remember her.  As a medical fact, it is quite fascinating.  How prepared am I regarding when that comes, I can’t answer.  They say that it is very hard on the family members when it gets to this stage and I can imagine why.  The only bright side of this (if there is one), the patient doesn’t know, therefore, he doesn’t feel the hurt.  I guess this is the point when we have to remind ourselves that the “pain” is actually what we feel and not what the patient feels.

Note:  Connecting this knowledge, then what happened in “Home for Dinner” with PuiYi’s Mom is a medical miracle.  Either that or the doctors did a wrong diagnosis… she only had temporary amnesia!  The other thing about Alzheimer patients is when there is something else that goes wrong with the other bodily organs, the patient deteriorates at a phenomenal rate.