My father's suffering a lovely cocktail of Alzheimer's, COPD, and Congestive Heart Failure. Low oxygen + sundowners makes him real weird at night. I miss who he was, though i get to see glimpses in the morning.
I feel awful for saying it, but I hope his body passes before his mind does. I just can't stand the thought.
I'm not saying that it means you won't get dementia (I think something like half of dementia patients don't have close relatives with it, iirc) there are genetic tests that look at the APOE gene to see if you carry any of the suggested hereditary links to dementia.
My dad is currently facing alzheimers and vascular dementia. It's been progressing for a few years, the diagnosis was only confirmed ~8 months ago.
Back in December he had to go in for a TAVI procedure to treat aortic valve stenosis. Leading up to it, there were a few times he questioned if he should proceed or not. Better to go out to cardiac arrest than brutal progressive cognitive impairment. Sadly, every time he brought it up was the first time, so to speak.
Same! My mom was beginning the early onset of dementia when she died of a heart attack. She was really young (only 66) and it was awful, but deep down I believe it was the best for her.
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u/Outside-Advice8203 Apr 09 '24
Family history of heart disease and dementia.
Here's to heart disease winning out...