Advice
So I am in need of some advice, and of course you all are brilliant, so this is one of the first places I come to.
Mrs. PNOG is starting to exhibit more signs of what I think is dimentia, and because of this (and other things) she's showing a lot of signs of clinical depression. I shouldn't be surprised by this, seeing as she's going to be 90 in October, but it's still disconcerting.
It's nothing too serious yet. . . no running around naked (despite dire predictions from the PNOG for YEARS) and no really huge mishaps. She'll forget her pills, forget which clothes are clean or dirty, forget who she's spoken with on the phone. She gets into conversational loops where she'll tell you something, and then 3 minutes later, tell you the same thing again. And again. And again. This is particularly bad lately since her youngest and last surviving brother passed away about 3 weeks ago, and every day the greiving process is new and refreshed. Part of me wants to put the memorial service program out of her sightline so she doesn't have to go through this every day, but at the same time, it's not really my choice to make, and if she DOES remember, how can I explain it's absence?
She is also starting to lose large chunks of recent memory, which is hard on us, but just terrifying for her. I spoke with her on the phone a bit ago (reminding her to take her pills, making sure she got breakfast and the coffee I left) and she mentioned again that she can't remember things. . . she remembers the PNOG being here, and she remembers how she felt when he was gone, but she can't remember anything relating to his death. Something that traumatic I could see blocking out. . . but there are things like us clearing out the sewing room downstairs (which she hadn't used in 20 years and most of the fabric and supplies had dry-rotted beyond salvage. The project took about 2 weeks) or even our re-doing the kitchen (6 months) that are just. . . gone.
She's been in aricept for a long time now, and I don't think there's another drug that would help, but we're going to the doctor on Saturday to make sure.
In the mean time. . . have any of you dealt with this? How do you deal with their distress, as well as your own? Are there suggestions as to how to help her remember things? She already writes down almost everything she does every day, but it doesn't seem to help.
Suggestions? Comments?
Mrs. PNOG is starting to exhibit more signs of what I think is dimentia, and because of this (and other things) she's showing a lot of signs of clinical depression. I shouldn't be surprised by this, seeing as she's going to be 90 in October, but it's still disconcerting.
It's nothing too serious yet. . . no running around naked (despite dire predictions from the PNOG for YEARS) and no really huge mishaps. She'll forget her pills, forget which clothes are clean or dirty, forget who she's spoken with on the phone. She gets into conversational loops where she'll tell you something, and then 3 minutes later, tell you the same thing again. And again. And again. This is particularly bad lately since her youngest and last surviving brother passed away about 3 weeks ago, and every day the greiving process is new and refreshed. Part of me wants to put the memorial service program out of her sightline so she doesn't have to go through this every day, but at the same time, it's not really my choice to make, and if she DOES remember, how can I explain it's absence?
She is also starting to lose large chunks of recent memory, which is hard on us, but just terrifying for her. I spoke with her on the phone a bit ago (reminding her to take her pills, making sure she got breakfast and the coffee I left) and she mentioned again that she can't remember things. . . she remembers the PNOG being here, and she remembers how she felt when he was gone, but she can't remember anything relating to his death. Something that traumatic I could see blocking out. . . but there are things like us clearing out the sewing room downstairs (which she hadn't used in 20 years and most of the fabric and supplies had dry-rotted beyond salvage. The project took about 2 weeks) or even our re-doing the kitchen (6 months) that are just. . . gone.
She's been in aricept for a long time now, and I don't think there's another drug that would help, but we're going to the doctor on Saturday to make sure.
In the mean time. . . have any of you dealt with this? How do you deal with their distress, as well as your own? Are there suggestions as to how to help her remember things? She already writes down almost everything she does every day, but it doesn't seem to help.
Suggestions? Comments?