How come my Mom seems to be getting steadily better?
I'm not sure if I'm boasting or complaining, and I don't want to tempt Providence, but my mother (90 in July, chronic LVHF, complex co-morbidities, multi-factorial dementia) is on really good form and - here's the odd bit - is getting bit-by-bit, consistently, better. Her memory is improved. Her confusion is less. Her mood is generally more positive. This has been going on, excepting the odd off-day, for a good two or three months and, while I'm delighted, it's got to the point where I'm beginning to wonder whether her various diagnoses were quite right.
The current thinking is that she has a mixed dementia picture including vascular and Alzheimer's involvement. As I understand it, sustained recovery in either of those conditions simply doesn't happen. A CT scan 8-9 months ago showed some atrophy but otherwise nothing clear and definitive. Unfortunately she can't have an MRI so I appreciate that her older age psychiatrist has one hand tied behind his back; but what am I to think?
Has anyone else experienced this? Did it continue? Was there an explanation? I don't want to get over-excited/deluded about a flash in the pan but I don't, either, want to miss an opportunity to get behind her recovery - if it is one - and push it.
She's been on a low-dose SSRI for over a year; a new diuretic for about a year; other than that, nothing's been changed apart from my own kitchen-sink contributions of 70% dark chocolate before bed and a common-or-garden Vitamin C 200mg tablet at breakfast, to cover any gaps. And I only added those in because they were a) definitely harmless, b) tasty and c) you never know they might help. I am not a believer in miracle cures of any sort, so no I am not imagining that chocolate can change the course of dementia! If only…
I'll go and see if she wants another crack at that jigsaw puzzle!
Pam made a good point; if your mother lived in any of the areas that experienced the long and severely brutal winter, she probably felt a tangible relief when the mountainous piles of snow began to melt.
Much as I loved winter, even this last one began to wear me down.
I'd say keep up what you're doing and be joyful that you've accidentally stumbled on some good combination that has improved her life!
I hadn't noticed a seasonal cycle, but there have been so many other troughs and troughs that they would have got in the way - she broke her wrist last April, so that was a downer; she was still getting over her stroke and that took all summer…
I think SAD might be a very interesting point to ponder. Thank you.
The SAD theory is fascinating. She might not react much to a sun lamp except on dreary days, but it is worth a try. I know you'll keep us informed.
Sometimes we have to accept the mysteries.
Do you garden? Start plants in the winter with grow lights? Or maybe just get a lovely ivy for her to care for and remind her of spring.
Take her to lunch or dinner more often.
Go to free concerns, which incresae in number around the holidays.
And let us know what's working. I've seen the definite changes in myself as well as my father, who's much happier now that he can get out and putter around in his workshop. Winter can be very, very confining.
My mother's always been a traveller, taking herself off on long haul trips, and of course she not only misses it but it depresses her that she's not physically up to it any more. Well! We'll just have to see what we can provide in the way of extra sunshine. I wish she was more given to joining in, signing up for new social activities; but switching on a daylight lamp for an hour every morning over breakfast even she should be able to cope with.
I had to laugh at the idea of giving her a plant to care for. She is a legend in the gardening world: nothing survives her supreme indifference. I do grow plants around her, and arrange fresh flowers, believing that whether or not you care much about your environment it must affect your mood, but my goodness it has to be something spectacular for her to notice it.
She caught sight of the peonies after they'd been opening in a vase for a couple of days and said "gosh, they're a bit much, aren't they?" My beautiful crimson peonies, sacrificed to gracing my mother's living room, and that was the thanks they got. Sigh.
She doesn't mean it nastily. She just can't bring herself to care about plants - beats me, but I suppose not everybody has to.
I'm very interested in what you say about the LBD, Jeanne. Do you know, I'm beginning to half-bake a wonder about whether in some people some other, spare part of their brain starts compensating? I'm glad the doctors at least had the humility to admit they didn't know. "Dunno, search me" I can cope with as an answer. Vague, semi-plausible waffle that peters out when even they know it sounds like rubbish, though… that is annoying.
Or, have you been watching X-Files again??
On the other hand, I'm sitting here with a chicken on my knee (yes, that chicken, name of Alice) while I type - she's come in from the rain because I left the window open and she's under the impression that 'mi casa e sua casa' - so perhaps being thought a nut job is something it's a bit late to worry about.
I understand what you're saying about your medical relatives. No blame on medical folks - they've been educated to see medication as a primary healing source. After the discovery of the miracles medication could perform, I think the emphasis gradually shifted from natural sources to manufactured sources.
Go out in the garden and plant a healing garden of medicinal herbs? Naw! But prescribe something of dubious origin which may have originated or been manufactured in abysmal conditions in China or India...that's ok. Not that the medical folks endorse contaminated meds - they don't have the resources to check them out. And they're still acting on their education.
Have you ever read Herb Quarterly or Herb Companion? Your openness to alternative treatments makes me think you might find it interesting.