Alzheimer’s or a Stroke?

“Emma, it was so nice of the boys [her grandsons] to bring my plants when we moved here,” Mother commented, as we sat at the breakfast table one morning after I arrived from my home 275 miles away to spend a few days with her.

Mother was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and had begun to get confused.  But now I was confused.  Mother, and my dad when he was alive, had lived at this house for more than 20 years.

“Moved here?”  I asked.  “When did you move here?”

“A few days ago,” she answered.  “The boys and I moved here from that other house.”

As the morning progressed, a few other comments seemed more puzzling than usual.  So I called a friend, who was an LPN.  She had taken care of many elderly people and often helped me with Mother.

“Your mother probably had one of those ’silent strokes,’ the ones that are hardly noticeable,” she suggested.  “Why don’t you call her doctor?”

Mother’s doctor agreed.  He explained that often Alzheimer’s patients do have strokes and that confuses them and the diagnosis even more.  If I brought Mother to his office, he’d check her over.

Later, when Mother was in the nursing home, she had more silent stokes.  They made it seem she was taking a turn for the worse with her Alzheimer’s condition. 

Trying to determine which it is (Alzheimer’s or stroke) has become an area of research.  In Alzheimer’s Daily News (www.alznews.org) for Aug. 29, there is reference to an article in The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada, (www.theglobeandmail.com ), “Is it Alzheimer’s or is it a Stroke?”

Researchers in Canada and the United States are trying to develop tests that will help determine what it is and hopefully lead to earlier diagnosis.