what can be done?

Ativan,or other benzo meds is detrimental to anyone with dementia.Aricept,Razadyne or Exelon are the prefered drugs to help with Dementia.Also Namenda which is taken with one of the other meds to help stablize the person.Antidepressants also are of a great help.Sometimes Antipshycotics are needed for extreme agitation,anger or combativeness............Hope this helps.

When I was at the nursing home yesterday she kept having shaking fits. The nurse in the morning gave her a pill which neither my grandfather (papa) or grandmother (nan) knew what it was. The nurse was around later and my papa had her come to the sitting room we were in. She said it was trazadone (which both my mom and I have been on to aid in sleep), the nurse when speaking to my nan would notice the legs shaking and body shaking would stop. Therefore she knew it was not one of the seizures but knew it was anxiety. When I informed my mom that she has trazadone (2 per day prn) my mom wondered how many anti-depressants they had her on, they got her off paxil but she is on I think it is called remeron.

My nan also has an itchy rash on her back which my mom told the nurses about which thankfully they knew about however they are only puttingh lotion and powder on it. I wish they would give her something to stop the itch or figure out what kind of rash it is so it can be treated properly. My papa has never been much of a phone person so when he is concerned about my nan he calls my mom and puts my nan on the phone which my mom cannot even hear her speak she is being too quiet. The nurses could not even hear her when they spoke over the intercom at the hospital.

Yesterday she ate some breakfast, no lunch, half of an ice cream cup, and my mom said she ate about 1/3 of dinner which was hot dogs, beans and italian wedding soup so at least she is starting to eat there. What I also like about this place is that you get no urine odor while walking in (unless a patient has the odor on them which unfortunately happened she sat in the room with us for 2 hours and no nurses noticed the odor). My nan had her dentures in early in the day but is complaining about the inside of her mouth hurting therefore my papa took them out for her and cleaned them.

the thread olnly lists 2 Nh for my state and the one she is in is not listed. However I went to abuse.com and granted the info there is old but it is one of the better ones in the state. This NH was highly recomended my many including a family friend who is a nurse. I also found a sit that ranks NH and the top score a NH couls get was 88 and hers got 86 the survey was completed latst month.