I already feel better!

sjeikmeier

My mom was diagnosed with the early onset of dementia in 2015 (65) but didn’t tell anyone. She responds with, “who doesn’t have memory issues as they age” or “I took my THC gummy before the Dr and that’s why I couldn’t draw the numbers on the clock”!

Let me go back to June ‘23 when she was living alone and my son received a call saying she was going to buy him a house. He felt like that was out of character and reached out to her best friend who said he spoke with her and she was having delusions of grandeur. They took her to ER but she refused any testing. About two weeks later they took her back due to LOTS of Amazon orders, disheveled apt and talk about become a billionaire from affiliate marketing. They admitted her and she agreed to the testing, only because she thought it might be a brain tumor. The hospital did a lot of testing, physical mostly but did a spinal tap that came out clear. She refused the psych eval and was adamant that the doctor never come in her room again! They released her with discharge instructions that she have 24 hour care. I lived 4 1/2 hours away and flew down to stay with her along with friends and a care giver that we hired. It was a temporary solution but she seemed to make more sense, got stronger and we thought things were back to normal. While we resumed our lives she flew from Houston to Rochester, stayed in a Hotel and decided she wanted to live there to be close to my cousin who was in jail for a felony, his son, his daughter and their moms. They reached out to me when she landed and kept me up to date on her lavish spending which included trying to buy a house and withdrawing $175,000 from her retirement account. She spent $50,000 in 3 weeks. The family there couldn’t take care of her anymore and convinced her to fly to my house for her granddaughter’s birthday. A few days after she arrived (Aug 17th) I had a mental health warrant issued to have her involuntarily hospitalized. They ended up transferring her to a behavioral health hospital for 3 weeks in an effort to stabilize the mania and do a mini mental on the dementia/psychosis. Ultimately they diagnosed her with bi-polar 2, moderate dementia and psychosis. They released her and recommended Assisted living so after a month living with me I moved her in to a place about 25 mins from me. I hired an Attorney and got Guardianship of person and POA to manage her finances. We are going through Neurological testing now to get more specific answers as to what type of dementia it is and whether we’re seeing the dementia or bi-polar. It’s hard to tell if one is making the other one worse or if she was misdiagnosed. We have a 60 day review of the guardianship and she thinks it will be lifted and she’ll move to Rochester. I’m exhausted and struggling to manage it all as a single working parent. Happy to know I’m not alone!

SusanB-dil

Hi sjeikmeier - no, you are not alone here...

That is a lot on your plate. Between the dementia and the bi-polar, they are probably both compounding the other.

and hopefully, most of the Amazon items can be returned? Good you are watching out for her. However, do be careful that you are taking time for yourself.

sjeikmeier

Thank you for your response, Susan! Self care is incredibly difficult these day but I am getting better at setting boundaries and not feeling guilty.