Please help !! I went to see Mum last wednesday and thought she had suffered a stroke she could hardly speak and was just staring out of the window. I rushed her to the Doctor who said it did appear to be a mini stroke and she would recover so to take her home. When I got her home I checked her shed and found ten empty brandy bottles , It was ten days since I had cleared the shed before so this amounts to a bottle a day!!! She promised me she would stop but I have heard it all before..Today I could not contact her as I thought her phone was off the hook, Then the care agency rang to say her carer was not able to get in as Mum was not answering the door. I rang her neighbor who popped in for me as I was at work and she rang me back to say mum was OK but no longer had a telephone or a telephone socket. As soon as i finished work I went there with my children only to find mum very very drunk.With a new big red lump on her head. I went to try and find the phone as I have to ring her every morning to tell her what she is doing that day. I heard a crash and my kids screaming, Mum had crashed into her sideboard then smashed her head on another one on her way down. it took me ages to get her up off the floor put a cold cloth on her head and sober her up with coffee. She was still insisting I was a liar and she is not drinking. I then found another nine empty bottles in her shed and put them on the table in front of her... I cant cope any more I am doing every thing I can to keep her in her own home but she is going to kill herself like this.....
Ok where to start!
My mum has been an alcoholic for 38yrs drinking mainly superbrew.
i found her back in October almost comatoes,hallucinating,starving,dehydrated,incontinent and unable to even stand.
I called the Doc out who immediatly called an ambulance.She was rushed to hospital and VERY,VERY luckily was seen by a DR that knew of Korsakoffs, his knowledge which believe you me is Very few and far between even at the highest level saved her life.
This is because he gave her massive amounts of B vitamins intraveinously.
Alcoholics tend to replace eating with drinking resulting in a diet with few vitamins and minerals.Alcohol some how stops the absorbtion of Thiamine (vit B1) and it is this deficiency that causes brain damage(korsakoffs) much damage can be halted with thiamine supplements and a good diet.
Do not assume that your doctor knows best,with a history like you have said the doc should atleast have done some blood tests.
She could have Wernickes.this is very hard to decifer as it often presents as drunkardness/dementia but tell,tell signs are normally wide legged gait,profound short term memory loss,jerky eye movements,confusion, loss of mobility etc.do some research a really good resource with loads of info is from the late lynda Boughey, she was a real pioneer in korsacoffs and her daughter Laura has now taken up the reins carenzacare.co.uk
i sadly had never heard of wernickes/korsakoff syndrome before my mum was diagnosed but now when i look back i know that she has had Wernickes for a number of years. Nothing was done about it and she now has KWS her memory loss is profound,she is repetitive and cannot walk properly but since diagnosis in October and a dementia test score of 3 she has made rapid improvements and up to a score of 23!! kws can be reversed if caught in time or can be halted if there is abstinance of alcohol.good luck it is not an easy battle to get any kind of help for alcoholics as bugets are so low but defo get back to her gp for as much support as poss.
hope this helps,any other questions please feel free to ask.I am not a medical person but am very well read up on korsakoffs!
Lou