My mom is 93 years old in a few more months and I am the sole caregiver, I am divorced with outlaw family (dead serious) my 28 y/o son disowned my entire family at the hands of my ex wife thus leaving me with my own stresses and Mom, she is the dearest lady on the face of the earth, she is crippled with memory loss 1st stages, Dementia. It took me prying at the doctors and convince them that there was an issue because when ever we went to the doctor Mom expected me to lay out her current ailments, which another cant always do, so all the doctor was hearing is I am FINE!! which might have prolonged things to the point of no return. First the doctor put her on meds to control the symptoms of dementia, I told the doctor lets try and treat the source instead of the symptoms, he took her off of symptom drugs and put her on Nemedia which is for dementia / alzheimers so far she has not had any bad side effects but not really any change either. The most disconcerning symptoms now are she refuses to eat or drink without at least 2-3 hours of drama. every few seconds it is "AM I SUPPOSED TO DRINK THIS, OR EAT THAT" that is the most frustrating part, she is constantly in tears, I will ask her what the matter is she will respond with "I DONT KNOW" I will ask you dont know what? then the wall goes up. We have always had a fairly good communications skills between the 2 of us, I am the only living son and have always been there except for one time prolly the most important time when my ex son and wife tried to home invade her. My Ex's condered people to set me up to get me out of the picture just to take over, thank god for moms friend that came to the rescue in my absence. ever since I have not left her side. I am going to stop here for now and let a few of you weigh in on this then we can continue if that is ok! Thank You very much
Emotions often go along with dementia. You have to decide if something is really wrong or if it is the disease. Sometimes it is a mix of the two. Tell us a bit more and someone may have some things that have helped them deal with things. We all share similar experiences with caregiving people with dementia. When she ask things like if she is supposed to eat something, answer simply -- something like "We'll eat in about an hour." Or if she ask what day it is, just answer, even if you just told her what day it is. :) It can be kind of like talking to a child at times. You'll get the hang of things.
If mom's behavioral symptoms are currently a problem, is it possible that she DOES have a UTI?
I'd keep in mind that though you may explain to mom what she should be eating or drinking, she likely forgets by the next time, so, explaining to her her over and over may be just what has to be done while she is in this stage.
thank you for this response, I am finding that this has been my moms issue as well for the past 6-8 months now, she will say to me "What ever you think is right" I just kinda took it with a grain of salt in the beginning then realized that this was reality, so your saying just to set firm schedules and do not deviate so it is less confusion for the patient correct??
this is ditto to my mom Sunnygrl11 thanks so much for this at least I know were both not going crazy (mom and I that is)
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
Barb, how much more of an impact on cognitive functions does a UTI have in the elderly compared to not so old. My mom has chronic UTI's because she doesnt drink enough during the changes of seasons. it seems like lately every fall and spring she gets one, 2 weeks on antibodies and it is cleared up. But it can not be good on the system.
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