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Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy and Death
Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases | Last Active: Mar 21 7:47am | Replies (14)Comment receiving replies
@sistertwo Thank you so much for sharing this story of your mom's experience with CAA. My mom was diagnosed in 2020 after a couple of very obvious brain bleeds. She died on June 18, 2021, just about 7 months after being diagnosed and at only 64 years old. In hindsight, she had been having a lot of behavioral and personality changes leading up to the diagnosis. We wonder if the brain bleeding had been going on for 10 or more years, undetected. We'll never know. Funny that you say your mom became boy crazy - my mom did this too! She would also have bouts of anger - I remember in the hospital she was so mad at the doctors, at me, at everyone - it was like she was a totally different person. She also became very paranoid - she kept thinking that there were bugs in her house or on her skin so much that she would literally go crazy about it. There were no bugs. She also became very obsessed with conspiracy theories and religion. With each known brain bleed at the end she would decline and then bounce back a little less each time - each "new normal" having less cognitive ability than the last until finally she couldn't eat or walk and then she stopped talking. Thank you for allowing me to share my story.
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I am sorry to find out you also experienced CAA. It's amazing how many similarities we experienced. The details they'd share (about theft, bugs or whatever) are so vivid and real to them. We learned it was usually best to agree with her and let her share what she believed to be true. However, that eventually backfired when she got too smart and would say, "if you know people are stealing from me, why are you not stopping it. You do NOTHING!" But, she would also be very appreciative and thankful at times, too. I hope you had some of those moments.
You didn't have very long with your mom. She was really young. I'm that age. I do think you are right about her illness likely starting 10 years sooner. It is not an easy one to diagnose. For us the different cognitive thinking came on gradually. It's like over time we all became some form of codependent, masking the new behaviors. I know now that my dad did and us 3 girls were always covering in social events before we even knew we were doing it. Like, at a wedding or gathering, one of us was always near her to carry on the conversations. Her sisters actually got angry with us when we had to tell them the truth of what was going on. They didn't believe us. That's another story. We all lived a life of denial at times.
God bless you! And, cherish the good memories.