Reposting new discussion for amylmaris (April 10)

M1

the following was posted on an old thread from 2021:

Oh goodness. I’m not alone. My mom 91 has been living in ‘not reality’ for a while now but as soon as we put her in a care facility she went down fast. I’m looking for tools to have a conversation that doesn’t bring me into the crazy house with her. I need to unentangle—it gets very personal and spiritual fast, Amy ideas/tools/resources?

Jo C.

Hello Amylmaris and a very warm welcome to you. I do not know how long ago your mother was admitted into care. Sometimes our Loved Ones (LOs) will have significant changes in their function and/or their cognition due to having a change in their environment. In some persons with dementia, this can lessen over time, but not always as it is due to advancement of their disease that was evolving.

With changes, it is good to have our LO checked for a "silent" urinary tract infection. Those UTIs are called, "silent" because there will be no physical symptoms, but there will often be significant changes in behaviors and/or function and/or cognition. This happens quite often with our LOs and is always good to have checked out. Also good to have her meds reviewed to see if there may be a culprit there, especially if there have been any med changes recently. If you sense something physical going on, the physician can always order a complete set of labs to see if anything is happening physically.

There are times our LOs will fall off the ledge they were able to function at due to advancement of their disease and it can happen abruptly and be very concerning for us. We never know what will be the course of the disease, things happen

Our LOs do best with good routine and structure and hopefully she is getting that in her setting. You are an excellent daughter and marvelous advocate for her in looking into this. Let us know how things are going and I send you best wishes.

J.