New diagnosis for my mum, wondering what we need to do.

[Talkinghead]

My mum has just been diagnosed with dementia. She is still functioning well, and the doctor said she was one of only 2 patients this year he was happy for to continue driving. Though worried she will have to stop driving soon, from what he said.
Have done Power of Attorney. My mum lives 45 minutes away. Wondering if she would move nearer me but I’m in quite a small village so maybe less for her to do. I’ve got 3 children at school/college and on my own with them. My brother lives abroad.
Live in Scotland, she will be getting regular visits from dementia team in first year. Will also be prescribed donepezil- what is everyone’s experience of that?

 

[Canadian Joanne]

My mother responded well to donepezil. Not everyone does, but I think it's best to try it and see how it goes.

 

[scb]

My mother responded well to donepezil. Not everyone does, but I think it's best to try it and see how it goes.

Hi Canadian Joanne, in what way did your mother respond well to Donepezil and how long was she on it before you noticed improvement? thank you

 

[Canadian Joanne]

Gosh, that was such a long time ago. It took a while, several weeks if I remember correctly, but her moods did improve and things were on a more even keel for a number of months. She was eventually switched to a combination of memantine and galantamine.

My mother's disease progress meant we spent a lot of time tweaking meds. In addition to the usual confusion and cognitive decline, my mother was very aggressive, both verbally and physically. Since she was diagnosed one month after her 64th birthday, she was very physically fit, which caused another set of problems.

However, this may not apply at all to your situation.

 

[marionq]

My mum has just been diagnosed with dementia. She is still functioning well, and the doctor said she was one of only 2 patients this year he was happy for to continue driving. Though worried she will have to stop driving soon, from what he said.
Have done Power of Attorney. My mum lives 45 minutes away. Wondering if she would move nearer me but I’m in quite a small village so maybe less for her to do. I’ve got 3 children at school/college and on my own with them. My brother lives abroad.
Live in Scotland, she will be getting regular visits from dementia team in first year. Will also be prescribed donepezil- what is everyone’s experience of that?

I don’t know where she lives in Scotland but I believe we have a good system here. It is of course limited as everywhere by available resources but here in Glasgow I can only praise all that I have dealt with so far in Alzheimer’s Scotland and the Local authority as well as the NHS.

 

[canary]

Will also be prescribed donepezil- what is everyone’s experience of that?

My mum was prescribed donepezil and responded very well. Before she got the donepezil she was declining at such an alarming rate I feared that she would not see the year out. The donepezil slowed the deterioration right down so that she then got 2 good years before the inevitable decline and she passed away.

Donepezil does not improve the dementia (although it can improve their mood and sometimes they seem more lucid) and it does not halt the disease - it reduces the rate of decline, so that they decline more slowly.

It does not always work, though, and if there are other health problems them sometimes it is not appropriate.

I would try it and see how she goes.

 

[Izzy]

I’m also in Scotland.

My husband had Alzheimer’s - diagnosed in 2001 and died 3 years ago tomorrow. He was put on Donepezil almost immediately after diagnosis. I wouldn’t like to say I saw an improvement but my view has always been that I thought it slowed down the progress. He was on this for a good number of years until the consultant felt that it wasn’t being as effective. He was then put on Rivastigmine, which is in the same family of drugs. He was on that for a number of years until his score on the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) was too low to allow them to keep prescribing the drugs. As I say I believe they slowed down the progress rather than made any improvement. If ‘lucky’ is the right word then we were lucky that he managed to survive 15 years following diagnosis. He was physically healthy for most of this time.

Like Marion I have nothing but praise for our system in Scotland. I know not everyone has the same experience but in Dundee we were well supported. At the time we didn’t have the year of post diagnostic support as that’s a fairly recent thing. Hopefully your local Alzheimer Scotland branch will have activities your mum might like to attend. My husband went to one of their day care centres and benefited from it. We also went to the monthly Dementia Cafe. I still go to our local Dementia Choir. It used to be run under the auspices of Alz Scot but we are now independent. I hope you can find some suitable activities for your mum - especially as she is at the early stages of her diagnosis

I’m glad you have found the forum and hope you continue to post. You’ll find lots of help and support here.