My mother was taken to the assessment ward of the local hospital yesterday (she was formally sectioned in case she kicked up a fuss) and will remain there for 3-5 weeks so that a clear assessment of her needs can be made, and consequently the right care home environment found for her.
It was a difficult decision to make, but her increasingly wayward mood swings, anger and recklessness made it an essential one. Despite being 85, she is very fit and can out-run not only my 87-year-old father, but her middle-aged live-in carer. She was becoming a danger to herself and to others.
Yesterday, the consultant referred to her as having frontotemporal lobe dementia and not Alzheimers as was first diagnosed. This is the first we had heard of this and, in all the kerfuffle of my mother being taken away, it went unremarked. I have done some (very brief) research and although she certainly has some of the symptoms, her regress over the last seven years has been pretty classic Alzheimers, I would have thought.
So my (long-winded) question is this - do other people's experiences of the later stages of Alzheimers mirror my mother's? Or could this consultant be right and the previous consultant wrong?
It's not just an academic question - I am afraid that it will be harder to find an appropriate care home if this is the correct diagnosis, as I presume she will be harder to manage and potentially a danger to other residents.
Or just tell me to be more patient - after all, this is what this period of assessment is all about!
Thank you in advance.
It was a difficult decision to make, but her increasingly wayward mood swings, anger and recklessness made it an essential one. Despite being 85, she is very fit and can out-run not only my 87-year-old father, but her middle-aged live-in carer. She was becoming a danger to herself and to others.
Yesterday, the consultant referred to her as having frontotemporal lobe dementia and not Alzheimers as was first diagnosed. This is the first we had heard of this and, in all the kerfuffle of my mother being taken away, it went unremarked. I have done some (very brief) research and although she certainly has some of the symptoms, her regress over the last seven years has been pretty classic Alzheimers, I would have thought.
So my (long-winded) question is this - do other people's experiences of the later stages of Alzheimers mirror my mother's? Or could this consultant be right and the previous consultant wrong?
It's not just an academic question - I am afraid that it will be harder to find an appropriate care home if this is the correct diagnosis, as I presume she will be harder to manage and potentially a danger to other residents.
Or just tell me to be more patient - after all, this is what this period of assessment is all about!
Thank you in advance.
