Hi, my Mum-in-law has recently been diagnosed with dementia. We are waiting for our 3rd appointment with the memory clinic. Our first was with a lovely Dr, who diagnosed dementia and said that after her scan regardless of the outcome he would be starting her on medication to try to slow the progression. At the next appointment we found he had left and the new Dr wanted more tests before he would prescribe anything. I should point out that my Mum-in-law is in complete denial that she has a problem and bitterly resents us "making" her go to these appointments. She finds the questioning and tests very upsetting. We were due an appointment this week, when they called her at home (even though there are notes on her files telling them not to do this as she becomes upset and confused, calls are supposed to go to me), and told her that the Dr is now on long-term sick leave and they are waiting to see when he will come back before they decide to appoint a locum. There is no other Dr available apparently! Has anyone else experienced this situation? We are told that early diagnosis and treatment is vital, and we started the ball rolling back in August last year. My MIL is only just 70, very fit and active, and very intelligent. She has told the memory clinic that she is not going again, and we have had to have long discussions with her to change her mind. She lives with her husband who is recovering from a stroke, neither are at the stage where care is required thank goodness, but her memory and ability to cope with things like shopping/banking etc are getting worse. Does anyone have any advise on how to get her to accept medical help, I hate that we all feel like bullies for insisting she goes to appointments. And can I insist that the memory clinic does more or is this the norm? Sorry for the long post, this is all new to me.
Staff problems at our local memory clinic, and a Mother-in-law in denial
- Thread starter ann.marie
- Start date
I am very sorry you have to wait so long for decisive action. On account of which tests did the first doctor diagnose dementia, and what form of it? For example, there is no medication given for vascular dementia, but it is given for Alzheimer's. If no scan had been done yet, I can understand why the second doctor wanted to delve a bit deeper but it's absolutely not ok that the memory clinic is not appointing a locum in his absence. I would phone them again and stress that you need help and that if it is not given soon you will contact PALS or whoever they fall under.
The MRI scan was done, and didn't show either Alzheimers or vascular dementia. The Dr diagnosed on the basis of the many questionnaires they have done, each one she does she gets a slightly lower score. We have not been told exactly what type of dementia she has, is that normal? She has had a host of other tests as well, chest xrays, blood tests, heart trace etc all of which are normal. I will be calling the clinic again, thankyou.
