I haven’t seen my husband so engaged in months; maybe a year. Colleagues from pre-retirement whom we hadn’t seen in over a year, came for lunch a couple days ago. I had hoped for DH to rally and he did.
Even expecting it as I did, it was really something to see! I had also expected him to crash and burn after they left but he continued to behave normally (well, normal for 2 years ago) for two days. We were even able to have a couple conversations during which he appeared to track relatively well and show empathy. The crash came sometime during the night and this morning he seemed his old disoriented self again. 48+ hours seems like a long time to maintain lucidity at that level.
I’m wondering if that is indicative of the jagged progression of LB dementia. Neuro-psyche evaluation for diagnosis is not until March (!)
I am also wondering if I should invite people over every 3 days for lunch!
Symptoms for someone with Lewy Body dementia typically include hallucinations, body stiffness and not being able to move/walk and falling(just to name a few)so if your husband is exhibiting any of those perhaps he'll be diagnosed with Lewy Body. And if your husband already has Parkinson's, Lewy Body dementia often goes hand and hand with that.
Lewy Body dementia is the second most aggressive dementia with a life expectancy of just 5-7 years, while Alzheimer's is the slowest progressing of all the dementias with a life expectancy of about 6-20 years.
And of course someone can be diagnosed with more than one type of dementia as well.
I think you can't predict if this will sustain, but how lovely he had it, and while I wouldn't jump into anything I would try to open things up a bit more and see if he loves it. I think this puts me back to that old thing "What should I expect" in which case I always say "The unexpected". Because that's what it seems to come to.
Best out to you.
I noticed that with my Dad, he was an electrical engineer so anything regarding that professional he was still sharp up into his 90's but only if someone asked him related questions. On the other side of the coin, he kept forgetting to take his pills and would forget to use his walker, etc.