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Avatar universal

sudden memory loss

My 73 year old father in law had his Pfizer vaccine in March.  He immediately lost short term memory and now has started to lose long term memory.  We have taken him for a neuropsychologist eval which revealed severe dementia of unknown origin.  All neuro image testing has been normal (CT scan, PET scan) All blood work has been normal.  He now presents like an Alzheimers patient with sexual inappropriateness but neurologist said he has the symptoms of an Alzheimers/dementia patient without having the actual disease.  I have tried researching about vaccine side effects but not finding any information that could help explain what might have happened to my father in law that was completely independent prior to the vaccine and now requires 24 hour caregivers.  
1.  Any recommendations on possible further testing?
2. Have there been any reports of dementia from the vaccine? He has had testing for 9 months and his case has not been reported as of yet.
3.  Any place we could take him that is doing testing for patients that had neurological side effects after vaccine?
4. Any treatment options?
Thank you for any help offered
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Avatar universal
Covid can accelerate the timeline for manifestation of Alzheimer's patient's (including previously undiagnosed) problems so perhaps he coincidentally got asymptomatic Covid shortly before or after the vax, although the neuro guy might have looked into that. Here is a Sept article.  https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/31/covid-could-cause-significant-rise-in-dementia-cases-alzheimers-group.html
Helpful - 2
Avatar universal
My father in law has a history of Alzheimer's on his side of the family. He was starting to show very early signs, very mild before the pandemic, nothing crazy or really bad just occasionally misplacing things etc. so mild in fact you wouldn't even have thought it was anything other than normal age associated memory degradation. When he got his first dose of the vaccine within a week it was like someone flipped a switch and he was asking me if I had ever met the neighbors before - I've lived here for 8 years and gone to bbq's at the neighbors with my in-laws many times and interacted with them frequently. After the second dose it got worse and after the booster we are now at the point where he sometimes can't recognize his own house, and is having frequent hallucinations/paranoia and has had his driving privilege's revoked. Before the vaccines he was very active and could function just fine without constant supervision. Personally I don't think it's a coincidence at all. While I don't think the vaccine itself CAUSED the Alzheimer's, I think it certainly exacerbated it and made it progress much more rapidly. It's soo sad to watch someone decline so rapidly, knowing possibly that it was nudged along. I feel like he was robbed of a few more good years and now I'm watching this poor man fade away. I'd love to know if others have experienced similar things with regard to memory loss, rapid onset of Alzheimer's symptoms etc. post injection with their loved ones.
Helpful - 1
1 Comments
It is possible that he got Covid at the same time as his first dose. At that point he had very little to no protection because the first dose takes more than a week to get much protection. Plus one dose is only considered partially vaxxed.
Some studies say Covid accelerates Alzheimer's timelines as I mentioned above. There is no way that you can isolate the cause of it (as the vaccine) without a doctor doing tests, so "certainly exacerbated it" is actually uncertain when you consider that Covid (or maybe something else) has that effect on Alzheimers.  
163305 tn?1333668571
I've heard of various problems related to the people have had a reaction to the vaccine.. Some people have reported dizziness. The Vaccine manufactures are exempt from lawsuits. Even if you can prove that this happened because of the vaccine in the long run all that matters is taking care of your dad. Good luck
Helpful - 1
3 Comments
One more thought would be to report it to VAERS. There is a chart that shows reported reactions to the immunization.
VAERS is an unscientific self reporting system/site. Anyone can make up anything including their own self-diagnosis and post it there, so it is unreliable. Nothing prevents a hypochondriac who has imagined symptoms from listing them on VAERS.
If that's where you heard of dizziness then consider it might not have happened and keep searching until you find a scientific study that confirms the VAERS claim.  
It is only outliers that seem to have reactions that are anything beyond the annoying ones that people get with any vaccine.  I was more sick with my flu shot this year than either of my vaccines or my booster for covid.  I don't think anyone should be afraid to vaccinate. Strength in numbers suggests that people will do fine on vaccines and it is our BEST defense.

I sincerely think it also could be coincidental that your father had issues with memory.  However, he also could be an outlier.   We all know that every person is individual and can have an individual response to any medication or vaccine.  Covid can cause neurological issues but the vaccine does not have live vaccine in it. The only thing I could find in literature is if a patient already has existing neurological issues, dementia alzheimers, that the vaccing can cause delirium. That's an acute situation though. Is there a chance that your father had early stages of dementia?  This does happen.  Regardless, I'd work with a neurologist to overcome the situation as best you can so he can recover.  I sincerely doubt you will ever fully link it to the vaccine and it doesn't appear to be anything reported enough to garner attention and with the way vaccines have gone political, it would be.  
Avatar universal
Has he been tested for covid?  I ask because covid can cause blood clots all over the place, including the brain.  Alzheimer's isn't the only form of dementia.  Vascular dementia is caused by blocked blood vessels, something I haven't seen reported from the vaccine but which has been reported from having covid.  Otherwise I haven't heard of this problem but everyone is an individual and all medications have side effects that only some get and most don't and sometimes we're really unlucky.  As for any place testing for neurological problems, GBS is a problem but I haven't seen it reported much with the mRNA vaccines, it's been more of a problem for the other types of vaccines, but it can happen.  Of course, it's much more often caused by covid or the flu or the things you're being vaccinated against.  Sometimes with meds the reaction isn't to the active ingredients, it's to the fillers and binders and other things they use that can cause bad reactions.  And of course, anyone can turn out to be allergic to any drug including vaccines.  Sometimes the body just reacts to the drug that way.  It's often hard to find someone to see who is involved enough in the weeds of this stuff to know exactly what's happening.  You might try contacting CDC or Fauci's office or the office of a vaccinologist because they would be looking at everything really closely as they aren't spending most of their time tending to patients.  Best of luck.
Helpful - 1
134578 tn?1693250592
For what it's worth, here is an article debunking a supposedly scientific article that claimed the Covid vaccine causes Alzheimer's-like symptoms. So if you run across the original article, you'll at least know it was not a properly done study.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/the-vaccines-do-not-cause-alzheimers/65-5338c59e-4d75-4691-8c3c-0fa86cbe3413

Anyway, the H1N1 vaccine a decade or so ago gave some people Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is not the medical issue the vaccine was trying to solve. The Covid vaccine has provoked an inflammation of the muscle around the heart in some (few) people, and this side effect was caught pretty fast despite the numbers of people who had it being pretty small compared to the numbers of people getting the vaccine. Also, sometimes a physical jolt to the system (like an illness, a vaccination or even being in an accident) has been known to trigger a condition a person already has, that wasn't showing up noticeably.  (For example, I once got really a painful knee inflammation after I got the newer version of the shingles shot. As it turns out, I have arthritis in that knee, which had developed over a long time and I didn't know about it. The doctor couldn't say whether the shot triggered the flare-up, but it was clear the arthritis was there well before the shot.)

I realize this doesn't do much to try to find a solution for your father-in-law. If he did get it from the vaccination, that would be extremely uncommon, simply because with millions of people getting the Covid vaccination, if people were getting Alzheimer's from the vaccine, it would be seen. The question is still being asked, though.

In the meantime, try researching "sudden-onset Alzheimer's-like symptoms," rather than searching for a definite link of the Covid vaccine to Alzheimer's. It would be nice if this is something that can be solved, or that you can expect to see ease with time. My dad had Alzheimer's but it developed slowly, and much later we learned we should have been watching his teeth, as bacteria from cavities can be very dangerous in terms of Alzheimer's. So you never know. Good luck to you in your search, I hope it is something he comes out of.
Helpful - 1
134578 tn?1693250592
I'm sorry, it must be heartbreaking.

I experienced my dad having a similar rapid decline, going from pretty normal and lucid to almost not there, in a short time. In his case,  he had three teeth that were so badly decayed they needed to be pulled -- his apartment even stank of his rotten teeth. We think bacteria from his teeth caused his sudden Alzheimer's downturn. (It was before Covid.)

No matter if you can prove it's the cause or not, did you report this on the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System ("VAERS")?
Helpful - 0
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