Alzheimers

Wow...I have seen the opposite. It has been my history that their seems to be a surge of energy..and my patients seem to be less agitated and more functional a day or two towards the end of life. Very strange to me, but I have seen it happen too many times to ignore it. And there is a slight increase in temp...very slight.

It is kind of crazy..instead of going 'yeah!' on our patients good days..we tend to go "oh boy, keep a close eye on them". The surge of energy and functional ability increase tends to happen anywhere from 2-3 days prior to a severe decline...very much like a last hurrah so to speak...and it actually tweeks me out! Then there is a increase in temp (slight) and it tends to either increase hours before death, or decrease...I have seen both.

I have seen nonverbals speak, nonmobiles get out of bed (and usually fall), patients remembering things that are recent (when they didn't even know if they ate lunch 5 minutes after eating!), and picky eaters eating everything in front of them. It is very bizzare!!!!!!

Don't know if that will help you, but an interesting thing I discovered you may want to keep your eye out for...it is honestly very bizzare to watch it happen in front of you!

I've only seen that once, the lady's rectal temp was 91.something. Bizarre. Don't know if that has anything to do with Alzheimer's. She died a few days later.