Dementia isn't Alzheimers

It's a good thing that so much is being written and discussed about Alzheimers disease. My mother didn't have Alzheimers. She had vascular dementia. Apparently it is possible for a skilled geriatrician to determine one from the other through testing like those in the Merck manual linked from my first blog post on the subject.

Vascular dementia is caused by mini-strokes. Apparently these are imperceptible. My mother suffered from vertigo and would sometimes get dizzy and pass out, hitting her head on the ground, or worse. When I was a kid I vividly remember her falling in the kitchen and hitting her head on the handle to the bottom drawer of the stove. It broke and she was lying in a pool of blood. This was before 911 so I ran for a neighbor. I can't remember what happened from that point, but I can still see my mother passed out on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood.

There were other dizzy incidents over the years, and I suspect they all contributed in some way to her vascular dementia. In any case, the outcome from Alzheimers or dementia is the same -- your brain forgets how to keep your systems running and lets them shut down. How long that process takes is what makes each situation different, and all of them difficult for caregivers and family.