He's on an in-home scooter from gross motor damage; he suffered some brain damage 7 years ago, but was still alert enough to hold down a job at Walmart until he started falling. Yet, last year into this year, he asks me questions 3x in one day that I already answered. He identifies things I'm holding when we do the grocery list. He watches TV, but when I ask him what's going on, he says, "I don't know. I'm just watching." Huh?
Have his hearing checked. and if he needs hearing aides, please get them no matter the cost.
Not hearing things--it's a huge problem--you THINK you hear someone say something--or worse yet, you DON'T hear and you miss conversations, flight announcements, police chasing you lights & sirens and it just goes on and on. My DH is brilliant, but people think he has dementia b/c he doesn't answer questions as they are poised. He simply does not hear and so ignores you or seems confused. Those two things make a person look like they have some level of cognitive loss.
What has his doctor had to say on the subject?
My father was diagnosed by his PCP with alzheimers, however a retired nurse friends of my parents said there was no way he had alzheimers which then caused a kerfuffle. I had his PCP refer him to a neurologist who did testing and ordered a MRI. The results dad did have alzheimers plus the MRI showed he'd had some strokes in the balance center of his brain (so I should really thank the nurse friend or we might never have known about the strokes) - so he had mixed dementia - alzheimers + vascular dementia. The strokes explained why dad kept falling - no one ever saw the signs of his strokes - no FACE.
At that time dad had early alzheimers - he could hold a conversation, knew who people were and functioned well for someone in his late 80s - except for the falling part. In fact his dementia didn't take hold of him until he was 91 on hospice in the SNF.
Your husband's brain damage may have worsened or he now may have additional brain issues. Good luck to both of you.
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