Re:using a Geriatric Dr for Alzheimer's patient

Just Jenny

Hi, my mom won't go to dr it's been around 7 months since she has and I can't just sit back and watch her get sicker she has lost alot of weight and barely takes her meds when she asks me to make a dr appointment when it's time to go she backs out of going so I was advised by my primary dr nurse there is a geriatric dr who does house calls I am going to use him for the first time with mama .I feel I have no other choice I am allowing her to stay home with her 2 cats and my hubby and I take care of her minus 2 days a week when we have a hired caregiver sit with her. I just am not too familiar with geriatric drs has anyone ever used one and if so, may I ask please how did it turn out?

Thanks much :-)

harshedbuzz

@Just Jenny

When my dad moved into MC, we elected to change his care to their in-house geriatric doctor to avoid having to take him out of the facility.

Your situation may be different, but I found this doctor took a much more palliative approach to dad's care than his former PCP. His old PCP was fine, my mom is still his patient, but he's very "by the book" in terms of standard of care which I don't think was entirely appropriate for a man in his 80s in the later stages of a terminal disease. One thing the geri-doc did was cull a lot of dad's list of multiple medications. Dad's BP had come down a lot as he lost weight in stage 6 which increased his fall risk, so the doctor eliminated that medication. He also took dad off his statin which gave him muscle cramps and the metformin which caused GI issues because his blood sugar numbers were improved by his weight loss. He did double down on dad's COPD and made sure his breathing was as good as possible.

HB

easy23

My DH goes to a geriatric doctor. We've eliminated the psychiatrist and neurologist. It is working out quite well. The doctor handles all of the prescriptions and my husband actually likes going to him. It helps that the doctor is responsive to me on the patient portal, something we didn't have with the psychiatrist.