Alzheimer’s Problems Overwhelms the Appetite
September 28 – Oct 2, 2008
Our Mr. Q who has been living with us the past almost six months has been having a real difficult time eating. And that’s putting it mildly. The past few days his eating problems have gotten worse, much worse.
Most of the little bit of food he has been able to swallow has been spit out. Prior to this time about a month ago we had taken him to a speech Pathologist because he hasn’t been speaking lately, although it seemed like he could speak. Also they could determine if he had some other related problem affecting his eating.
Mr. Q’s Alzheimer’s condition is considered in the final stages according to the words of three of his doctors. Although we have had him less than six months. He was in a convalescent home a couple of months before he came to stay with us in our RCFE (Residential Care Facility for the Elderly).
His condition has deteriorated drastically (that’s my opinion). He was only diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the beginning of this year.
Because of the difficulty of Mr. Q with swallowing food and his ceasing to talk we had him tested. He failed the test procedure. It seems he has a fairly common problem others with Alzheimer’s disease have of swallowing his food.
We were were told there was no cure for his problem and that it was worse than most of those they had seen. His food ultimately got into his lungs in most cases, that is the little bit that he swallowed that did not come up right away.
All the suggestions we had received regarding feeding him were starting to fail. We had tried everything, but still he had a real and increasingly difficult time getting any food down into his stomach.
He wasn’t throwing it up, but never getting it down into his stomach. In fact most of his food was causing him to choke and spit it all out. Drinks, solid food that had been pureed like baby food, everything was coming out.
We took him to his regular doctor to have him examined again for his eating problems. We were told that his condition was not that unusual for Alzheimer’s persons. No other problems were found and we, quite apprehensive about the whole matter reluctantly left the doctor’s office.
Now his regular doctor was saying he was in the final stages of Alzheimer’s. Several previous tests and symptoms forced a grim outlook for Mr. Q. We were worried and not feeling good about the trip back home with Mr. Q. There were some decisions the family of Mr. Q would have to make, and make soon.
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