I`m Clinging To Straws here but............

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
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near London
:eek: well it gave me the chance to tell a story......

I thought I had the franchise for facetiousness here, but I just checked and the cerificate says "fatuosity", not "facetiousness".

Hey-ho.

I satisfied the urge to make a rum trifle this evening.... perhaps I was too heavy with the rum....:D
 

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
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near London
Not pretty to look at, but the rum gives me fortitude [quite a lot of fortitude], the custard and cream are balm to my soul, the peaches are part of my 'five per day', and the Swiss roll is the sturdy basis of this healthy dish.
 

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Margarita

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
10,824
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london
Skye
It's a strange disease. I haven't read any posts that are similar to our experiences.

I feel like that also with my mother scoring being so low, but still so alert that the OT at mum AZ day center said , how she always joins in the keep fit class , even thought they are setting down .

when I said mum was in the late stage she said no she can’t be , but when I said that she on medication for the late stage , she did not say anything, or do people class late stage when the person does not know you, wondering if that what she means .

so is
The medication for the late stages easing them in to the very last stage ? my mother was given late stages medication from the beginning when first diagnosed 5 years ago , she never started on all those other medication that they are now saying they have taken away .



someone above said something if they never took the medication for dementia what they would be like . I always wonder that with my mother. I have come to the conclusion that all that would of happen is that the disease would of progress faster , if they stop my mother medication now she would drop progress faster, when the brain shuts down
 

Nell

Registered User
Aug 9, 2005
1,170
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72
Australia
Brucie said:
yet another Brucie story:
when I was 18 and still at school, I went to two major computer companies to sit aptitude tests, hoping to enter the bright new world of computing, as it was then.
both companies looked at the results and said "forget computers. You will never have a career here with computers".
From 1965 until 2004 I had a very successful career in computers, and wrote a number of books on the area.
Why, when they were so sure I was so hopeless?
The test they used was a type of intelligence test - I'm useless at those. Had they used a logic test I'd have sailed through.
It was the wrong test to determine my capabilities, just as the MMSE can be the wrong test - if used in isolation - to test the abilities of a person with dementia.

My friend went for careers advice when he left school. After undertaking a battery of tests, he was told:
"We don't know what you are suited for, but you are in the top 3% of spellers."
Some 40 years later he is a highly regarded environmental scientist! Nell
 

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
0
near London
Margarita said:
was it home made or from a shop
I had finished moving some paving stones in the garden and felt like I needed a reward. Checked the cupboards and fridge and found I had the ingredients for a trifle.

Well, it was supposed to be a sherry trifle, but I didn't have any, so I used rum instead. That was better than sherry!

Oh dear, now I have to finish eating it. It is a heck of a job, but someone has to do it.;)
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
1,342
0
I don't know whether my mother was given a score (they tested her at least 3 times), I wasn't allowed in, (in case I helped her), and if they told her the score she obviously wouldn't have remembered it 5 minutes later. (Once when a nurse weighed her she told me she weighed 7 pounds. Professionals should realise it's not much use giving such information to patients with memory loss.)
 

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
0
near London
I was at each of the tests that Jan had done. It was the hardest thing ever, not to help her. I just sat alongside and willed her to know what year it was, who was prime minister, and even for her to be able to draw a circle. It was dreadful when she couldn't.

None of the doctors ever explained the test to me, or gave a score, which, on reflection, was stupid of them.
 

zonkjonk

Registered User
Mar 1, 2007
290
0
Melbourne, Australia
interesting thread

hi my names jo (from australia)...new to your forum
upon reading various posts i am yet to come across your views on the stages of dementia
my mum was placed into full time nursing home care on the 15th Jan aged 70
still continent and mobile..(shuffling).verbal abilities decreasing
she cannot dress or shower herself, can still use a spoon to feed, sleep rythym is disturbed.
she could not get herself a glass of water in her own home where she has lived many years
her own capabilities have diminished to being able to walk, eat and toilet.(with help)
she hid her dementia for a long time, as best she could, no sundowning, no agression, only one halluciation...always pliant and did as she was told (at one point asking me -you will tell me what to do -wont you?)
upon my first visit she declared I was her sister (suprisingly lucid....she has no sisters...and thought my brother(her son) was her brother)
considering that most dementia patients live on average 10 years from diagnosis, how does my mum compare to your loved ones
I think that my mum is at the latter stages of middle dementia, a year or so from now probably last stage
any comparisons, or observations thankfully received
kind regards,
Jo
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,442
0
Kent
Hi Jo and welcome to TP.

Comparisons are quite misleading as there may be similarities and differences in the same person.

My mother was similar to yours when she first went into a NH, but she COULD dress herself and make a drink in her own home.

What does that tell us? Not a lot really.

I`m not being negative, I hope you keep logging in to TP. I know you will learn a lot about dementia and be able to share observations and experiences, as well as joining one of the best support groups possible.

If you click on the i, in the top lft hand corner of the main page, you will gain access to the AS factsheets and more information. There is also a guide to the different stages of Alzheimers, but I think you may find these overlap.

Keep posting.
 

Bets

Registered User
Aug 11, 2005
100
0
South-East London, UK
I agree about the MMSE. It is a brief "table-top" screening test and all it tells you is how well any individual performed on that test on that occasion. Yes, the score may well show a deterioration over time but two people could both achieve the same score and manifest very different difficulties and behaviours in everyday life. Since my husband was diagnosed with vascular dementia in January, 2002, (having been showing symptoms for several years prior to that), the only assessments he has had have been a brain scan in March 2002 and the MMSE every few months. His score has gone from 29 in January 2002 to 20 in January this year. But I know how he has deteriorated over the last five years and don't need the MMSE to tell me that. The doctors, on the other hand, still need me to tell them in more specific detail about his deterioration.

Bets
 

Lila13

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
1,342
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My aunt who'd worked in old people's homes for years thought the MMSE was nonsense, it doesn't have anything to do with the amount of protection, care, stimulation etc. clients need.

I suppose it must be useful for some people or doctors would have given it up, or would they?
 

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
0
near London
With diagnosis and understanding so difficult, I guess that the MMSE is useful in that it is one of a range of things that can be used to judge condition over time - but only in combination with a great many other indications.