Hi everyone,
My Father has been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia, he's 78. I always thought he might be susceptible to something like this as he was deficient in B12 for a long time in his 30's (he stubbornly refused to see a GP) which resulted in his condition escalating to pernicious anemia. Anyhow.. he recovered and received regular injections of B12 and also had the appropriate blood tests to check everything was okay.
He started to get confused last year. This would come and go, or plateau I suppose they call it. Now everyday is a "bad day" as he's delusional, hallucinating and generally in an terrible state. We have received diabolical treatment from our GP. I called them on one particular day, when Dad had been extremely aggressive to Mum, only for the Doctor to ask me what I expected him to do about it, that I should look into rest homes and he'd think about sending over some diazepam. In other words he was letting me know I had no chance of a home visit.
I'd often wondered over the years why the prescriptions for his B12 injections stopped. I suppose I presumed that the surgery kept them in stock and he no longer needed to collect them himself from the pharmacy, where I was chief dispenser at the time. Now, after getting Social Services involved the surgery is suddenly taking a keen interest in Dad's condition and the pharmacy (which I left in 2006) has sent over several boxes of B12 which the nurse is going to administer to him later today.
I now strongly suspect that he hasn't had any B12 for well over a decade. Certainly it's getting on for 12-15 years since I dispensed the last prescription for him. I am naturally furious about this (he had blood tests and would say that the Doctor had not requested a B12 check) and wondered if anyone else has encountered this kind of thing?
My Father has been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia, he's 78. I always thought he might be susceptible to something like this as he was deficient in B12 for a long time in his 30's (he stubbornly refused to see a GP) which resulted in his condition escalating to pernicious anemia. Anyhow.. he recovered and received regular injections of B12 and also had the appropriate blood tests to check everything was okay.
He started to get confused last year. This would come and go, or plateau I suppose they call it. Now everyday is a "bad day" as he's delusional, hallucinating and generally in an terrible state. We have received diabolical treatment from our GP. I called them on one particular day, when Dad had been extremely aggressive to Mum, only for the Doctor to ask me what I expected him to do about it, that I should look into rest homes and he'd think about sending over some diazepam. In other words he was letting me know I had no chance of a home visit.
I'd often wondered over the years why the prescriptions for his B12 injections stopped. I suppose I presumed that the surgery kept them in stock and he no longer needed to collect them himself from the pharmacy, where I was chief dispenser at the time. Now, after getting Social Services involved the surgery is suddenly taking a keen interest in Dad's condition and the pharmacy (which I left in 2006) has sent over several boxes of B12 which the nurse is going to administer to him later today.
I now strongly suspect that he hasn't had any B12 for well over a decade. Certainly it's getting on for 12-15 years since I dispensed the last prescription for him. I am naturally furious about this (he had blood tests and would say that the Doctor had not requested a B12 check) and wondered if anyone else has encountered this kind of thing?