My sister and I have been distance carers for our mother (aged 87) for nearly a year since she broke her hip last March. We tried to do too much for her in the early days and although she reached a certain level of mobility she has never progressed to getting about without her frame. We also voiced our concerns regarding her memory. She was referred to the Memory Clinic, but it was all rather a long winded process that also included a CT scan and ECG. Last December's diagnosis was one of Mild Cognitive Impairment, but following on some worrying memory lapses I contacted the GP, who arranged for a Memory Nurse to re-assess mum at home. This happened last week, and he phoned me today with a revised diagnosis of Vacular Dementia.
As there is nothing that can be done via medication he suggested a healthier lifestyle will slow down the progress. She is barely active, because of the mobility problem; has little interest in food or a healthy diet and is now underweight and has smoked since her teens. She is also COPD.
We try to visit 3 times a week and she also has carers twice a day as she needs help with washing and dressing as well as taking her medication, which was getting in a frightful mess with blisters popped willy nilly from dossette boxes. We've tried to involve voluntary visitors so that she sees different faces and gets some kind of stimulation, but she is not interested. She doesn't respond to phone calls very often and says she is too tired to talk to people, although she keeps expressing regret that she hasn't caught up with phone calls.
I'm sure many of you have been in this, or similar positions. Can anybody offer any help or suggestions to make her life any better? She seems to have lost interest in many things and all we can do is talk about the past as she's not experiencing the present.
As there is nothing that can be done via medication he suggested a healthier lifestyle will slow down the progress. She is barely active, because of the mobility problem; has little interest in food or a healthy diet and is now underweight and has smoked since her teens. She is also COPD.
We try to visit 3 times a week and she also has carers twice a day as she needs help with washing and dressing as well as taking her medication, which was getting in a frightful mess with blisters popped willy nilly from dossette boxes. We've tried to involve voluntary visitors so that she sees different faces and gets some kind of stimulation, but she is not interested. She doesn't respond to phone calls very often and says she is too tired to talk to people, although she keeps expressing regret that she hasn't caught up with phone calls.
I'm sure many of you have been in this, or similar positions. Can anybody offer any help or suggestions to make her life any better? She seems to have lost interest in many things and all we can do is talk about the past as she's not experiencing the present.
