Keeping in with medication

[gillyb65]

We are currently caring for my 87 year old father in law who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for a number of years. After years of staying at a level which allowed him to care for himself, get out and about and generally be well, he has declined suddenly. Now he is unable to dress himself on occasions, has very slurred speech limited mobility and has vivid hallucinations at night. Ranting on for hours about their former life. He has taken galantamine for six years. Is it worth taking it now as we seem to be moving onto Stage 6? My 85 year old mother in law is his carer and is really struggling at the moment not knowing what he will do next. He is verbally aggressive to her but also does
not want to let her out of his sight. She is very stubborn and does not like to ask for help. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thank you

 

[canary]

Hello @gillyb65 and welcome to Talking Point

Im sorry to hear that your Father in law has taken such a fast downturn. I think you need to ask the doctor about taking medication, whether it is appropriate to continue with the galantamine and even whether there is some medication that can help with his night time hallucinations (which sound very much like sundowning)

 

[karaokePete]

Hello @gillyb65, you are welcome here and I hope you find the forum to be a friendly and supportive place.

Do take a good look around the site as it is a goldmine for information. When I first joined I read old threads for information but then found the AS Publications list and the page where a post code search can be done to check for support services in ones own area. If you are interested in these, clicking the following links will take you there

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/publications-factsheets-full-list

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/find-support-near-you

You will see that there are Factsheets that will help with things like getting care needs assessments, deciding the level of care required and sorting out useful things like Wills, Power of Attorney etc.

Now that you have found us I hope you will keep posting as the membership has vast collective knowledge and experience.