In other news

[sparkindarkness]

Social services have got back to us telling us they'll be working on respite care for Nana and maybe even a permanant solution (ummm... that sounded a lot more homicidal nazi-ish than intended, I mean looking at a permanant place in a care home of some kind).

They've give us medicine to give her which will arrest the deterioration, possibly. Dad has been giving it to her for the last week.

When I next see the nice social care lady I may throttle her. I don't know WHAT the drug is (mental note: quiz padre on this) but we have had a whole new RECORD of lunacy this past week.

2 nights ago I could NOT get her to go to bed. It was like dealing with a whining 5 year old! "I want a drink of water." Water's right there. "Oh, I want to go to the toilet." Well go then, you don't need me to show you! "I want a drink of water!" You just had one... Every time I started to leave she called out again. 2 freaking hours! Gah, my goddaughters are easier to deal with!

And yesterday I had to leave work to put down a panic (I've never had to leave work before - we've always had aunts and uncles and cousins to help - but that's the problem, our support net is crumbling!) and no matter how sympathetic the SPs are about it, cancelling most of the day at no notice when you had several appointments and looking deadlines is NOT idea (thank gods I wasn't due in court). She was wandering around outside (she hardly ever wonders!) and the neighbour found her saying she'd come home from school and her mum and dad weren't there.

Dad has his own tales of lunacy to tell. We thought she'd stopped calling me and him but it seems she just can't dial the right number any more and she's driving anyone with similar numbers to us batty. And she insisted that a tube of toothpaste was her face cream and would NOT be told and would NOT stop applying it. Well, she has minty fresh skin now, I guess.

There's a letter on her house from the police (what?!) ordering the council to repair her broken back door as a matter of urgency since "the elderly inhabitant cannot gain entry or egress." It's vaguely threatening (though towards the council it seems). We have NO idea where it's come from or why - the dooris absolutely fine, none of us have contacted the council and certainly not the police. She can't have done it - I mean, how is she going to call the council? This is a woman who can have a 10 minute conversation with the dial tone! Oh and she put her stuffed cat out for the night. She's never had a cat. But she says her brother did it (dead these past 17 years). He was probably the one who pinned her curtains to the wall to stop any light getting out (black out rules, y'know).

So, nice social service people. This medicine? Is it actually a psychadelic drug? Are we part of some kind of testing program we didn't know about? Or is this a way to extract some kind of perverse amusement from us? Because, hey, it's funny - after the fact and when you don't have to deal with it.

Comments

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

Do you have the name of the drug so you can look it up along with the side effects? I am so sorry you are having to go through all of this.

[drharper.livejournal.com]

I second that request...and give a caveat. The thing with psycho-active drugs is that human brain chemistry varies widely. I've treated people with depression where one drug caused them to become almost psychotic while another worked fine. And, in another person, the exact opposite occurred. It's like a mechanic trying to fix custom-built cars which do not come with owner's manuals. :(

[althaea101.livejournal.com]

Having to deal with these types and the medications I understand your frustration but they actually help most. They can help calm some and other start remembering better. She just started them so it may take some time and/or they may need to add another drug. The only downside is she may though be too far along. Hopefully if nothing else they will calm her.

[vamprino.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I wish I could offer some advice (other than looking up the name).
Would an e-hug help?

[ladyhelen.livejournal.com]

I have my fingers firmly crossed that social services pull their finger out shortly and get something sorted for you. *hug*

[xarra.livejournal.com]

Hate to say I was sniggering as I read this... But I know it's not funny for you, so I hope you'll excuse the amusement of someone not in the awful position you're in and who does hope that the saga of nana is sorted soon... *hugs*

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I have some limited experience with drugs which alter brain chemistry - 2 different types for 2 different complaints, neither of them Alzheimers. In both cases, the drugs took about 10 days or so to take effect. Hang in there. Brain chemistry is a tricky thing - there could be an adjustment period.

[makarov.livejournal.com]

Sparkindarkness, i truly wish i had some words of comfort/wisdom for you, but sadly, i do not

[everbloom.livejournal.com]

My grandma also has Alzheimers, although thankfully she's not a wanderer nor does she live with us. She doesn't recognise most of us now, and the drugs only work for the first year or so anyway.
She also had a doctor who refused to diagnose her or get her tested for Alzheimers. When we finally convinced her to move closer to us (quite early on) the first thing my dad did was get rid of her collection of *unlabelled* pill bottles from that quack.
Good luck, but as others have said, if they are psych drugs, they'll take a while to start working. If they're cognitives (probably glutamate regulators) then you won't notice it getting better, they just stop it getting worse. Hopefully.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I'll have to dig it up I keep forgetting

thank you

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

so we're in trial and error ville for a while.

tbh, slowing down the process is just rather moot now.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Just hoping really. Some days are lucis and you think things will be easier then you get a mean lash back

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

At the moment they're dragging their feet "X is on holiday" AND?! Does the whole department stop then?!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

well it is funny, after and sometimes even during :) it's one of the things that makes it all managable - it sounds cruel sometimes laughing at an insane old woman, but if you don't find it funny and you DON'T laugh then you'll just collapse.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I'm hanging in and hoping

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Thank you

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I believe she has gone too far for the drugs to help - even if they arrested her decline - well she's already declined to a level that is unworkable

Sadly there are no shortages of these useless doctors, they prescribe anything regardless, and don'tcare about their patients - just in making their patients go away

Thank you

[ladyhelen.livejournal.com]

Be persistent, keep pestering them! *Somebody* is covering the work in case of emergencies, it's never the case that everybody is away.

[sal---paradise.livejournal.com]

Humour is what gets us through the utterly tragic. My grandfather had brain cancer, and the tumour affected his thinking. After a good fight involving cutting out part of his brain and enough chemo to almost, but not quite kill him, the cancer fought back and affected his thoughts again.

He had a hospital bed in his living room toward the end, and the family would be in and out of the house to help. One afternoon my father and I were watching TV with him, with some sitcom on the tube, and my grandmother walks in.

My grandfather gets very agitated, saying "What's she doing in here? You have to get her out of here, My God, she can't see this!" We couldn't figure out what he meant, and he points at the TV and says "Get her out! She can't see this stag film! Jesus, he's fucking her right up the ass!"

Of course, no such thing was happening, and we realized he was watching something *completely* different in his head... and my father, grandmother and I just lost it. Laughing so hard it hurts, and there's no way you can stop, with anything and everything kicking it off all over again.

And an hour after everything had settled down and my grandfather was asleep, from out of nowhere my grandmother says "Well, if that's what he's seeing, I don't feel as bad for him now" and kicking off another round of helpless, fall-on-the-floor laughter.

We lost him a few months after that, and my grandmother a few years later. I'm not sure that I've laughed as hard before or after that. It balances out, because out of all that time, all the pain, that memory is what I come back to, and I still laugh.

This, too, shall pass. Be well, Sparky.