Welcome to the vascular dementia forum

[Grannie G]

Dear Sarah, you really will have to keep an eye on your father`s medication, especially as he`s a bit `anti`. I caught my husband throwing his medication into the garden, again last night, after all his promises and after all the consultant said.

Love xx

 

[Taz]

Oh my goodness, thanks, I'll check what he's up to with it all.
Are you ok?
x

 

[Grannie G]

I`m fine thanks Sarah, but have had a difficult day.

After three days of calm, because of the change in dosage of my husband`s meds, today was nearly back to square one.

He started again about going home to his family, as I don`t think he felt I came up to scratch as a carer. He said he was growing old and was ill and would need a lot of care.

So I told him it was OK, he caould go when he wanted, and left the room. He wandered around for a while then asked me what had happened.

I told him he was ill because he threw his tablets away and I actually struck a chord. He said he could see he was his own worst enemy, and realized the truth of what I had said. He took the tablets tonight like a lamb.

I`ll see how long it lasts. He`ll probably forget tomorrow, and we`ll go through it all over again. That`s why your father needs watching.

Love xx

 

[Taz]

It's one thing after another or so it seems, I am full of admiration for people like you and my Mum and the other lovely folk on here, and elsewhere, who care for their loved ones 24/7. Those of us who care from a distance sometimes don't appreciate the stress of caring for another person all day, every day. We can pop in and out: other folk don't have that luxury.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that you and your husband have some more calm days and that the medication settles him as much as possible.
Take care.
love
Sarah
xxx

 

[Taz]

Hi Sarah, glad the consultant was so thorough, and your dad was co-operative!

I'm not sure about the chart, though! Will your dad remember to fill it in? Or if he doesn't want to take the aspirin, will he fill it in and not take the tablets?

It seems to be taking a lot on trust from a dementia patient. I hope the consultant has managed to get through to your dad the importance of taking them.

Thanks for letting us know,

Hi
Thanks for that, I've suggested to Mum that she fills in the chart when Dad takes the medication in front of her and that she needs to make sure that he doesn't spit the tablets out....we'll have to see how it goes I suppose.
Thank you.
xxx

 

[barbie]

out of my hands

Since my last post there has been a lot of change in my life, my husband is out of hospital but in a nursing home, he has deterioated since mid June and after being in hospital for nearly 8 weeks he was transferred to the home last week he has multi infarct dementia amongst other problems .I am so glad that decision was taken out of my hands, he cannot come home I could not look after him mainly because he is unpredictable and unstable can be verbally and physically aggressive Refuses his medication and food has lost so much weight and is very weak.We have as a family decided DNR the Dr agreed . The staff at the home are kind ,experienced and caring but I hate going there because I have to come home without Graham . If he is pleasant the visits are not so bad but if he is in a bad mood I leave in tears
Having been through the discharge assessment process without help of social worker ( no surprise, he went on holiday and didnt tell me) my advice is flatly and absolutely refuse to take your loved one out of hospital until you have checked and double checked his assessment .The hospital tried to discharge graham without assessment completed ,I flatly refused to allow it,his assessments were re done quickly (amazing how quickly the wheels turn when they need to) and he was then awarded fully funded nursing care for 12 weeks, a little different from the original banding. The money was not my main concern I just wanted fairness and an explanation.Forewarned is forearmed, get as much information as possible, Alzheimers website is a wonderful source,Age Concern
another,and do not be afraid to say NO, too many people give in.If in doubt check it out, and do not be afraid to question everything.
The emotional turmoil does not get any better up one day down another, guilty,sad, relieved, rested,missing graham,a large void in my day that I must learn to fill but then feeling guilty for trying.I hope that as time goes on I will get used to this new life surely things must get better
barbie

 

[Skye]

Dear barbie, what a terrible time you've had.

I hope your battles are over now that you've got Graham settled. But that still leaves the emotional upheaval to cope with.

Let us know how you get on. I do hope things get better for you.

Love,

 

[Taz]

Barbie,
Thinking of you and yours.....
love
Sarah

 

[sassylady]

How hard it is to get a diagnosis of VAD, even though the diagnosis makes no difference as this condition cannot be reversed I guess it makes it easier to understand the sufferer's needs and why they happen. The first symptom in my mum was she suddenly could not tell the time correctly had a red swollen eye. Then she got confused handling the tv remote, she lost her sense of taste and slowly stopped eating, her bowels were not working nor her bladder, her manner became paranoid and verbally aggressive and then severely depressed. Although I had not heard of VAD I started badgering the GP practice to help mum but they they only treated each problem individually,i.e. she had a bladder infection although the test was negative so antibiotics, she was prescribed tablets for a 'lazy bladder',eye drops next so I took her to the optician who advised Glaucoma and when I asked if this could be Vascular related or secondary to another condition he just put me down and said of course not! We do now have the confirmation of VAD, I realise even if we had gotten there earlier it would not have much difference but we could could have gotten her the care she needed a lot earlier rather than a lot unnecessary medication.

I guess what I am asking is how aware are GPs of this condition?

 

[ocharlotte]

Downhill!

I am a new member and just found the forum for vascular dementia which we found my mother had developed over the last two years when she broke her hip in April. Until that time, she lived home alone and had mild Alzheimer's progressing very slowly for about 8 years. In 3 hours on an April night, I watched her practically lose all sense of self...so I thought. In the few months since then, I have seen 5 of those sudden drops changing her to a different person each time. She is now in the nursing home and has had five falls in a week. Sounds bad, the staff is great. She is like Houdini. They are trying. She has now gone to a reclining chair which they don't think is going to work either. Several times she has been caught with both feet to the side and raised up nearly to the point of standing or turning the chair over. In the last two weeks, I have watched her lose nearly all of her ability to walk, begin mumbling badly, become incognant, forget how to eat, and bruise her entire body fighting to get out of chairs. Is there a stopping point with this? Does it merely change daily until absolute death? I feel like she is about to lose all quality of life now and is miserable. She is diagnosed with multi infarct of Alzheimer's and vascular which has also been called subclavian steal syndrome. Her subclavian artery is blocked on the left side at entrance to carotid causing only 20% of the blood to get to that side of the brain. She has probably had at least 6 TIA's since April.