First off, thanks to everyone who gave me advice on the Medicaide front. The app came on Saturday and I have all the info.

OK, so as of yesterday, my Mom has been in a psyche unit of a hospital for 1 week. The nursing home sent here there due to violence. Today, in a conference call with her doctor there, he told us that she has dementia.

I said, "yes, she has Alzheimer's." He said... "she has both." Woah! I thought they were one and the same and he told us that wasn't the case, but did not explain further.

They put her on Restoril and Zyprexa and doubled her Tegretol. Also, they won't release her back to her nursing home until she exhibits acceptable behavior for 3 days in a row. Last night, she tripped any staff member who walked past her. Sunday night, she yanked her roommate out of bed by her arm because she was in "her" house.

I think I'm dealing with this ok (thanks to my own meds). HOWEVER, it's driving my bio-mom insane (and she's not medicated). She's calling the nurses station every 2 hours and then calling me to give me an update. She is worrying herself sick and I can't make it better. Plus, she gets a little ticked at me when I don't give her the dramatic reaction she's looking for. I'm med-i-ca-ted!

But I digress. On one hand, I know we're doing the right thing because the nursing home is fed up. On the other, I'm not so sure about this doctor. I'm a touch worried that maybe he's playing with her meds on purpose. (For the past couple of days, she was on other stuff.) The hospital wants to make their money, right?

Yeah, I'm a tad paranoid. Need a pill for that.

Hi, Bettie Jean! Both you and the doctor may be right on the diagnosis.

Dementia is a symptom, like fever. If you have a fever, you may have the flu or a sinus infection, for example. If you have dementia, you may have Alzheimer's or you may have a number of other things that cause dementia.

Everyone who has Alzheimer's has dementia; not everyone who has dementia has Alzheimer's.

Some doctors refer to vascular dementia as simply "dementia," and it is not at all unusual for someone to have both vascular dementia and Alzheimer's.

As far as switching her meds around, that is also to be expected. Since you shared that you enjoy the benefits of "better living through chemistry" as I called it, you know that it can take trying different drugs, different doses or schedules, to get everything working well. We can't just take a blood sample and say "hmmm, her aggression factor is 4.6 so it must be working." It's trial and error and lots of observation. In your mom's case, the stakes are higher, since she could be a danger to herself or others, so the doctors may well take a good bit of time to make sure they have found the best solution.

That said -- it's frustrating as hell, isn't it? Hang in there!

BettieJean, I can really understand and relate to how you are feeling. My mother has been in and out of the hospital since June, mostly in. She got "released" (translation, kicked out) from two homes for violent and aggressive behavior and refusal of care. I also got really angry with my mother's doctor, thinking he didn't know what he was doing with her meds and whatnot. Truth is, they do know what they are doing. It takes time to get the right "cocktail", things need to go slowly with dementia patients. That being said, my mother is on the waiting list to get into a special behavioral senior nursing facility (translation, expensive nursing home) and she has to stay in the hospital until then, because we have no place else for her to go. The hospital can get other patients at the snap of a finger, believe me! It sounds like the hospital is where your mother needs to be right now.

Carolina Songbird is right about dementia. Not everyone with dementia has AD but everyone with AD has dementia. There are many other things that cause dementia and various types of dementia, and sometimes they are hard to differentiate.

Being that Medicaid is paying the bill, I would really really doubt that they're keeping her any longer than necessary or changing her meds just to keep her (even if the hospital or doctor is highly unethical). Medicaid really doesn't pay well. Many doctors in my area don't take Medicaid because it's just not worth it- between office staff power and time, they don't make any money from Medicaid patients.

From all that I've read, it takes awhile to get AD patients on the right medications very often and it's really a lot of trial and error.
I hope that everything is back to normal very soon

quote:

Originally posted by jellybeans:
Being that Medicaid is paying the bill, I would really really doubt that they're keeping her any longer than necessary or changing her meds just to keep her (even if the hospital or doctor is highly unethical).

I thought she just received the application -- or was it approved?

quote:

Originally posted by Always Learning More:

quote:

Originally posted by jellybeans:
Being that Medicaid is paying the bill, I would really really doubt that they're keeping her any longer than necessary or changing her meds just to keep her (even if the hospital or doctor is highly unethical).

I thought she just received the application -- or was it approved?

OOPS! I read that it was "taken care of" and I thought that meant it was a done deal.