question

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering how doctor's know if a person is suffereing from Alzheimer's vs. Dementia?

 

My grandmother is 78 been gradually forgetting things for the past couple of years. I was hospitalized a few times this year for Crohn's related surgeries. The last time I was in the Hospital (late June) my grandparents were there evryday. Also more recently she had been on a shopping binge (small items such as stuffed animals, outdoor items ex bird bath (which has fake flowers in it), pinwheels etc. Also from what I understand she had set up the different rooms in her house as different themes ex: a kokopelli throw blanket is hanging from the wall with my "tribal" drum in front of it I also think she has more in that display as well. she bought a few canes recently too she has osteoporosis and multiple compression fractures.

about 18 yrs ago she had a nervous breakdown and has been on Adivan since, also she is a breast cancer survivor. My grandparents anniversarry was July 2 they have been married 58 years. The weekend after their anniv. we had dinner over at my parents house and she refused to eat saying it was constipation but stated that she ate breakfast. A week or so later she went to the ER complaining of dizzyness, being lightheaded etc, at this point she had been eating again. They did a CT of her brain and found multiple TIAs from the past and more recent. They kept her in the holding area overnight not knowing if she was going to be admitted. In the morning sje woke up and was confused to where she was (she fell asleep in 1 room and awoke in another) they called my grandfather he went down and she relaxed.

A cpl of weeks later she was drinking less and barely eating if eating at all. She kept complaining of nausea. On the 22 my mother went to her house before a relatives birthday party and she wasnt great, her brother and sister in law (grandmothers...my mother and I are only children) were there while my mother and father were at the party. After the party my parents went back over to the house. Due to her lack of eating she was barely walking. She had been in pain since she fell the week before and caused another compression fracture. At that walk in clinic they did x rays, then later they called her to go back the next day for another xray, her brother and sister in law took her. She said she had to use the retroom and my great aunt brought her in and then my grandmother asked what to do when in the bathroom. My aunt reasponded that she told them she had to urinate. Then my grandmother said oh yeah I sit down for that right?

Ok back to the not eating. After the party when my folks went back there my mother smelled they keytones on her breath and called the rescue. She is going to be in the hospital until tomorrow medicare said she is stable and they wont pay for her to stay anymore. They did 3 EEGs and on the 2nd one a seizure was noted and now she is on dilantin. She is now off of paxil but still on adivan, as well as another depression med. They started her on 2 more meds as well one is an antipsychotic the other is for alzheimers. Some days she does great eating again others she claims she wants someone to give her something so she can die.

This just made me question what type of brain disease is going on in this case. I wonder if it is Alzheimer's, dementia or due to the long term adivan or maybe a combo of these. Today my folks are out looking for a nursing home even though they saved $ so they could be taken care of at home. We are also having financial issues with them ex my mom's name is not on the house only on the will. Also they dont understand the gifting money to family members so that the other spouce will have $ to live off of they worked so hard for their money I just dont want a nursing home to take it all away.

I went off on a tangent , sorry I do that quite often

I would love for her to have a neuro consult but they are kicking her out of the hospital tomorrow. I dont know if she could be set up with a neuro at the nursing home she is going too. I mentioned the topic to my neuro last week when I was there and he mentioned coming off the meds can cause the seizures as well. She was doing pretty well (although not the best she had been) until her Psychiatrist slowly started to taper her off Adivan. She actually was in the hospital last summer due to not feeling well and it was high blood pressure something she never had before. Just makes me wonder if there should have been closer monitoring of the situation even though she is stubborn and scared for medical tsting...took her over 1 year to get her annual bloodwork done.

dragonfly welcome
I am also a fellow crohnie and look after dad with AD..........

I would really suggesst getting her into that neuro no matter what it takes to have her properly assessed and dx

I do know it is heartbreaking and very difficult to do
Know you are not alone
Email me if you care to talk more on this plz

Take care and try and have a good day
Huggs to your Grandma .........
Come here and VENT all you want read other threads ect and of course check out the resources at side

God Bless

LYN

Yes I have seen your posts and I know to well how rough you are having it .........
I am sure you can ask them to please have a consult with a nueorologist at the NH she is in by making this request to head of Nursing in writing or the one caring for her when you see her make sure you get name of Nurses caring for her.like I said PUT this in writing that you want her to be seen by a Nuerologist I know here in Ontario they are automatically.........

I do so hope she is not on the ativan still that is a really bad med for AD imho as well there are many more out there for her to take
Let us know how you make out

LYN

You can take her to any Dr you choose.Yes they have thier own Dr at the NH but you can still take her to a Neurologist,then the 2 Drs can confer whats going on.

Yes thatys true you can have her checked by a couple and the NH one as well

Please do let us know whats going on

Thanks Snowy once again........