As we all learn, AD damages the brain randomly, causing symptoms to show up in no particular order. This makes it difficult to pinpoint "stages" and judge the speed of progression.

Our first wake-up call came in January 2004. My wife was 55 at the time. After AD was diagnosed in 2005, we realized that there had been subtle signs for a few years leading up to the 1/04 jolt. Today, she exhibits severe decline. I would call this "rapid", but our psychiatrist told us that EO doesn't always mean rapid progression.