my dad passed away Friday from dementia. Why did he decline in the matter of a week? The week before he passed away
he was still somewhat verbal you couldn’t really understand it all that well and he was still active moving walking everything still hostile and aggressive Friday night we had got him into hospice for his back pain so hopefully try to get his days and his nights back to normal and that night he fell asleep and almost like he never woke back up at first he was swallowing his medicine or any liquid we gave him but then Wednesday it’s like he forgot how to swallow in the span of an hour. Is that normal? He went from walking talking and everything to death in a weeks time it seems like is that normal?
Really, our parents' with advanced dementia had been declining for quite some time before their final decline, when you think about it. I know I was saying that my mother was in a state of decline for a good year before she actually passed. I was still surprised to see that she died 'so quickly', within a week's time, even though she'd been suffering from advanced dementia, CHF and other issues for a very long time. There's nothing 'normal' about any facet of dementia, or anything that happens to them, unfortunately.
I also suspect my mother was having quite a few TIAs or small strokes in the last few months of her life b/c she was leaning SERIOUSLY over to the left side in her wheelchair. Without diagnostic testing being done (due to hospice care), I'll never know. What I do know is that my mother is at perfect peace now, thank God, after a long bout of suffering with dementia and heart issues. So is your father.
My condolences on your loss. Sending you a hug and a prayer for peace as you grieve this loss in your life.
It is only natural to wonder..
I used to wonder how a Grandparent actually died, as talking, then not, then peacefully slipping away in less than a week. What would be the recorded 'cause'? Regardless of a word, a label - it was *old age* really.
Old age is process. Just like dementia is a process. An umbrella term covering many processes/diseases. Some effect plauges & cause tangles in the brain, others caused by vascular issues that also cause TIAs/stroke/heart attack.
I think of dementia as the lights on a big ship being slowly turned off. (Not just the sudden power failure of one event). A slow winding down, a peaceful slowing down to finally rest & stop.
Every person's dementia, can be similar in the fact they all decline, and yet different in the rate of decline. There is no definite timeline.
Some people decline slowly, plateau, then decline more. Others take a steady, rapid decline. Still others decline slowly, have a sharp decline after a fall or illness, plateau, then have another sharp decline, etc. I've heard of someone going from a day of being lucid and chatty and waking up the next day barely aware of their surroundings.
In my experience, dementia and end of life issues frequently lead to eating and swallowing problems. I think it is the body shutting down.
It is highly possibly your father also had other health issues going on related to his back pain.
I'm so sorry for the loss of your father.
My Husband went from walking one day to not walking the next. I suspect he had Vascular Dementia with the Alzheimer's so a stroke would not have been unexpected.
If you believe this is possible, he passed because he was ready to.
I am sure he passed with no pain and at peace.
You can spend the rest of your life wondering all the why's but you will not get an answer.
Just know he is no longer in pain. Let that be your comfort.
PMy nurses called it an "episode". Something happens while they sleep and things change over night. My Dad was on Hospice. It was Thanksgiving and he watched TV with my brothers. He was having a speech problem but otherwise his old self. He went to bed at 10pm and never woke up. My daughter was sure he would have been fighting for every breath but he went peacefully.
miss the person he was before his illness. He’s not suffering anymore.
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