Me and my hubby are on the very end of the 'Baby Boomer' generation and we are both dealing with what comes with age, bones that talk back, hair that decides that grey is in, wrinkles that creep in over night, jeez where did time go?
We along with this generation are dealing with our aging parents as well, what should we do when they no longer can take care of them selves.
My Mother n law who is 75, is a beautiful woman, who had a sharp mind. She never gossiped as speaking ill of someone, and is well liked by all that know her.
She never looked like many older women, she was always in style, being between a size 1 and 6 throughout her adult life and has always been thin, always took pride in her looks. When we would visit her and my hubby would catch up on all the news of what was going on with people they knew in common since they both grew up here, not in a gossipy way, just letting each other know who was sick or who got married or divorced, who had died, who moved , who came back home ,that kind of stuff. Mom knew everyone in this area and kept up on everyone. I had noticed about 5 or so years ago that she was forgetting things, was not as good at recollecting things. She would forget what she was saying, not so much that most would noticed, but I did and told hubby and he just poo pooed it. Well a couple of years ago she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she has declined way too fast since then. A couple of weeks ago she dropped another BIG step down on the her mental latter. Most people think that those with Dementia drop steadily but Alzheimer's reach a plateau and may stay there for a short time or a long time then drop all of a sudden down a step and then stay there for awhile and so forth.Well she went off the deep end , she still living at home, her hubby had to call ambulance and they sedated her and sent her to the ER. We got to the ER she was pretty sedated, they recommended that she go to this real good Behavior ward at a hospital about 100 miles away. She had been there until yesterday.While there we all took turns visiting the 2 hours we were allotted each day. When we first visited they had taken her off all meds, to see where she really was, so we walk in and boy what a surprise.She was just not mom, We came in and she knew she should know us but did not know her son or me, she couldn't say 2 words together that meant anything and would ramble on incoherently. Well they put her on seroquel a drug for bi polar disease and using it off label for alzheimer's and having great results with it.They gave her a dose then see how she did for the next day and then increased it and waited a day or two to see how she did and so forth increasing as they went. So each time we came in there was a marked change in her condition, she was getting so much better each time , we were amazed at her improvement. I felt as did the hospital that she needed to go in a Long Term facility when they released her, but her hubby felt he needed to try it again at home and of course my hubby and his brother was relieved that he was, but I was not, I knew he was unable to cope with what I knew will happen but such as it is, So now she came home yesterday, and by that evening had another episode like she did before all this,she got violent and very angry with her hubby, 'step father ' to my hubby and his brother, and this morning the same thing going on.........so I expect that she will be sent back to hospital and now we will have to find an Alzheimer's unit at a long term care center around here. I feel so helpless, I feel so sorry for my hubby and his brother and boy do I miss my Mother n Law as she use to be, her mind, is greatly missed. I wish I could take care of her, I used to be a Nurses aide and Medication Tech for 14 years and if I wasn't so disabled I would take care of her, I hate that she has to be placed in a Nursing home, it is just so hard sometimes.So right now I really don't know what is happening , my hubby went there this morning , she lives about 2 miles from us and so no news yet on what will be done.
and so it goes
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