mom fast decline

Hi irene - It is not uncommon for our LO to no longer recognize us. My mom thinks I am her sister.

And yes - all of 'this' is outrageously hard. Is she agitated, or maybe even depressed? You might want to mention that to her doc.

I understand the difficulty. uughh! Mom was a nurse and MIL was a teacher. It is hard to see what used to be of two vibrant women in 'this' position.

Do let her doc know about the antidepressant. However, 'new' can take up to a couple weeks to see results with some medications.

Yes, mom has alz, and MIL has vasc + alz. Brother has POA concerning mom, and mom and I were never close, anyway, and never did see eye-to-eye. So brother watching out for her is working out very well. Mother is actually nicer to me now that she thinks I'm her sister. Brother has set up her phone as a 'child/parent phone' and she can only send/receive calls to certain people. He set it up so it has pictures with the respective phone numbers. I have the family resemblance, so when she sees my picture, I must be her sister from years back because that is how she remembers her. But yeah, she was an RN with bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing. I don't know if she would remember how to put on a band-aid now. very sad. She pretty much knows what is going on and is actually taking it in stride. (maybe thanks to her meds and always did have a fairly positive outlook)

MIL is a fall risk, stroke risk, and burn-down-the-house risk. She cannot be left alone, but she has the anosognosia, that my mom does not. So - "There is nothing wrong, why are you people here!" is what we get often. I'm glad I knew her before 'this'. DH is an only child, and his dad passed in 2010, so it is on us to watch out for MIL, and DH has DPOA. As with your mom, MIL has had to have adjustments in meds due to agitation and depression. The cocktail she is on has been pretty much keeping her stable. Getting her to take them is another matter entirely! With thinking 'everything is fine, so I don't need meds' we have our hands full. She realizes she has had one stroke, so we tell her we don't want her to have another stroke. She has had 2 and several TIAs. With vascular dementia, she can stay on a fairly level plane for a while, but then suddenly have a huge 'step down'. She was an elementary school teacher for years, then went part-time substitute before retiring. She used to do various handcrafts, and now all of that has gone to the wayside.

So yes - a lot of us here certainly understand where you're coming from.

Could you maybe try a different doc within her network? It would be frustrating not being able to reach someone. Is there a 'healthcare portal' on-line? Sometimes I can get through to someone that way.

> @SusanB-dil said:
> Yes, mom has alz, and MIL has vasc + alz. Brother has POA concerning mom, and mom and I were never close, anyway, and never did see eye-to-eye. So brother watching out for her is working out very well. Mother is actually nicer to me now that she thinks I'm her sister. Brother has set up her phone as a 'child/parent phone' and she can only send/receive calls to certain people. He set it up so it has pictures with the respective phone numbers. I have the family resemblance, so when she sees my picture, I must be her sister from years back because that is how she remembers her. But yeah, she was an RN with bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing. I don't know if she would remember how to put on a band-aid now. very sad. She pretty much knows what is going on and is actually taking it in stride. (maybe thanks to her meds and always did have a fairly positive outlook)
> MIL is a fall risk, stroke risk, and burn-down-the-house risk. She cannot be left alone, but she has the anosognosia, that my mom does not. So - "There is nothing wrong, why are you people here!" is what we get often. I'm glad I knew her before 'this'. DH is an only child, and his dad passed in 2010, so it is on us to watch out for MIL, and DH has DPOA. As with your mom, MIL has had to have adjustments in meds due to agitation and depression. The cocktail she is on has been pretty much keeping her stable. Getting her to take them is another matter entirely! With thinking 'everything is fine, so I don't need meds' we have our hands full. She realizes she has had one stroke, so we tell her we don't want her to have another stroke. She has had 2 and several TIAs. With vascular dementia, she can stay on a fairly level plane for a while, but then suddenly have a huge 'step down'. She was an elementary school teacher for years, then went part-time substitute before retiring. She used to do various handcrafts, and now all of that has gone to the wayside.
> So yes - a lot of us here certainly understand where you're coming from.
> Could you maybe try a different doc within her network? It would be frustrating not being able to reach someone. Is there a 'healthcare portal' on-line? Sometimes I can get through to someone that way.

I didn't know you could set up a phone as a child/parent phone with only certain calls allowed and pictures for people. That was great to learn. Thank you. Do you know if that was set up through the phone provider?

Sorry - I haven't been on here as much.

I think you can do that with a lot of phone plans - put parental controls on the phone. You can put pictures by the number in almost any phone.

My daughter blocked most of what my granddaughter can do, and accidentally blocked me. I mentioned that she wasn't returning my texts any more and daughter got a shocked look on her face and apologized that she had done that.