Question:
I want to know how fast can Alzheimer's appear?

My 87 year old Mom has been having a lot of "senior moments" lately. She mayhave trouble coming up with a name sometimes. (don't we all!) I last saw her2 weeks ago & thought maybe she was over medicated. Her bad knees make itdifficult for her to walk un-assisted. She has fallen several times in thepast 2 weeks & her knees were all skinned up & infected. Friday they put herin the hospital because they were afraid she might have had a stroke. (herBP was 200\90) When I called her room yesterday & spoke to her, I askedwhere my Sister was as I wanted to speak to her. My Mom said "she's down inmy room". I asked my Mom where she was & she said "in my room". She clearlydidn't know what was going on. Is it possible for Alzheimer's to appear soquickly? They did a CAT scan on Saturday, but I haven't heard any resultsyet.

Answer: And to add to that, an elderly person can have more than one thinggoing on at a time that can affect mental status i.e. she might havehad confusion from early Alzheimer's and also have had a stroke on topof that. Many people who have dementia brewing from various causes arealso often holding on by their fingernails, and any illness can makethem seem markedly worse - even an undetected minor infection.Sometimes in those situations, the first sign something is wrongphysically is a big change in their mental status.

Alzheimers tends to move fairly slowly but inexorably. If there is asudden change in mental status, it is often from something else,either completely OTHER than Alzheimers or on top of it.

There are quite a stack of ailments that can cause confusion -thyroid, drug interactions, tumours, low oxygen levels from lung orheart problems, kidney or liver failure, drug interactions,Parkinsons, strokes, Alzheimers and on and on. You need her properlyexamined to figure out what is really going on - and don't be put offby the docs just because she is elderly. You can't know if there isanything you can do unless you know what is causing the visiblesymptoms - and as a bare minimum, you want her to be comfortable andwell cared for, so you need to know what this is in case it CAN betreated.

Multi-infarct dementia from tiny strokes is the second most commonkind of dementia .