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Dealing with vascular dementia


Debbyavery0

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We are in uncharted territory dealing with daddy's diagnosis of vascular dementia. At least all of his agitation and aggressiveness are gone. His memory is much better and he has cracked a few jokes. Still no tv, and he is still running lights off. Everything I've read about vascular dementia states it coincides with Alzheimer's. I am hoping the neurologist can shed some light on how severe he is. I am also hoping the psychiatrist can give mama a definitive diagnosis. I feel better knowing what I am dealing with. It is good to have daddy back at the apartment. His sisters have finally settled down and realized sending him to Geri pshyc was our only choice. I stayed home today with a bad headache. Brittany brought he baby over and I watched her while brett took Brittany out to eat. I am about to go to bed. Mope everyone has a great night.

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I called daddy about 10 minutes ago and he had to turn down the tv to be able to hear me. This is very interesting because he doesn't want the TV on during the day. He is starting to laugh and joke again. He is till very quiet though. I just don't understand what is going on in his head. I am just thankful he is no longer agitated and confrontational.

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Daddy seemed to have a setback today. This is the most confused he has been since January. He has now been totally off olanzapine for 13 days. I sent dr Kahn a message and started him back on 2.5mg of the olanzapine. I stayed at the apartment for awhile. I called right after I got home and he seemed okay. I am just praying he does not go back to thecway he was

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Daddy had a good day today. The doctor agreed he needs to be back on the olanzapine. I still have enough olanzapine left over from his last prescription to get by. I dropped off a new prescription today. I ran by the apartment and fixed supper. I did not see any indication of the confusion from last night.

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I spent the morning in the Ed with daddy. They determined he is having mini strokes. They increased his daily aspirin. I still wonder if part of his confusion is taking him off his lanzapine. This will be his third dose since we put him back on it. He seemed fine when we got back to the apartment so Robbie loaded him, mama and my aunt up and took them to a fish fry. I went back to the apartment once they returned. He was much better but still a bit confused.

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Daddy seems to be doing better but stil ain't quite right. Today he went to take the trash out but only took a couple of pieces of trash instead of taking the whole bag. He has also started using the restroom in the hallway instead of in the apartment. I hope we can get him back to normal. Mama continues to decline. She was very shaky today

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Daddy seems to be getting better every day. He is planning to drive with mama to Dixie safe to meet a 90 year old friend visiting from Colorado. I am concerned because mama can't help him if he has trouble and Robbie will be at the apartment with the baby. Today in church we found out that one of the elderly gentlemen used to jump from planes in world war 2. Daddy piped up and said he must have been in the 11th infantry. He read and studied world war 2 constantly before his stroke last year. This was the first time I have seen any interest since September of last year. He also hung around my daughter in laws grandfather yesterday at the baby shower. They used to be inseparable when they were together before his stroke. Nth best news is he is telling people he and ,ama are staying here indefinitely. Nathan's goidness, because I was going to have to do some scrambling to make sure they were taken care of if they moved back to the farm.

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Daddy was not doing so good tonight. He had trouble getting his sentences out. I think I caught him urinating in the trash an then staring in it. I think I am going to bring his iPad home for a bit in case he gets the crazy notion to start throwing things away again.mama was having a semi decent day until I realized she had already taken Saturday mornings pills. I am a tad depressed.

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Daddy had a bad morning but was doing much better this evening. I had a bad migraine so I didn't go into work until lipunchtime. I have an appointment with the cardiologist tomorrow so I am going to talk to him about some of my weird symptoms. Mama was doing so so today. I put their pills away and only laid out their evening pills. This really upset her because it was different.

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I am firmly convinced that baptist hospital was correct in saying daddy had a stroke and we are now dealing with vascular dementia. Yams said he was delusional because he was sick and to wean him off the olanzapine. I weaned him off and on day 12 he once again became very confused. I emailed his pcp who told me to put him back on the olanzapine. He is on 2.5 mg, I will up the dose to 5 mg Saturday. Brett took him to the farm and they stopped for all you can eat catfish. He said daddy picked up 3 trays and started putting the food directly on the trays. He must have realized his mistake because he asked brett to go ahead of him. Apparently, daddy was going to ask to drive our truck to go see his cousin tomorrow, that is not happening. I called his cousin and he is going to the farm to see daddy. I hope brett and daddy have a good time.

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I don't think I will send Brett and daddy off together anymore. Brett has very little patience. In all fairness, it is my dad not his. I made the decision to miss our 100 year celebration at our church next Sunday and drive mama and daddy to their church in mc crore. I cannot in good faith let him drive until his comprehensive skills get better, if they do. My head is still hurting, this is day 4. The baby slept decent last night which helped. I am heading over to mama and daddy's to do pills when she wakes up. Hope everyone has a great Saturday!

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Daddy had a great day yesterday and today. He is back up to 5 mg of olanzapine. He has been driving again, so far so good. Mama is pretty much the same, very feeble, anti-social, forgetful and worries about everything.

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Mama fell flat on her back this afternoon. Robbie sent me a text and told me she was fine. I went straight over there after work to check on her. She is going to be sore tomorrow but seemed okay. They were sitting in the dark but at least had the tv on. They met up with daddy's sisters and brother earlier today and seemed to have a good time. I must be more stressed than I thought. I had my first case of severe chest pain in awhile. I was covering for lunch and thought I was going to pass out. Nit was pretty embarrassing. I got back to actually, took my verapamil and sat with my feet propped up until it passed. My chest was sore the rest of the day but other than that no side effects.

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Mama seems to be doing okay after her fall. Hopefully, she will make sure a chair is behind her before she sits down again..this is the third time this has happened. Daddy is still getting better since we upped his olanzapine. He has the mentality of a teenager right now. He likes to just spontaneously drive places now. I am taking them to their church in mccrory tomorrow. We are going to run by the farm and eat at the restaurant in town. We will stop by and see our grandbaby miss Hayley on the way back. They seem excited about the trip.

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I took mama and daddy to their church this morning. It is 90 miles one way. Daddy seemed to enjoy himself, mama seemed out of it. After church we ate at the local restaurant. My uncle joined us. We had a good visit. We stopped by the farm, everything looked good. We headed back to see the oldest grandbaby. She was hilarious. She showed us her new baby sisters room and her new bedroom. Based on how my dil looked, her baby sister will be here soon. I took mama and daddy back to the apartment, went grocery shopping and headed home. I am going to turn in early.

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Today was a good day for mama and daddy. Daddy seems to be back to as good as he was before the doctor took him off the olanzapine. He is back up to 5 mg. I feel comfortable with him driving again. They have settled into a routine and it takes so little to make them happy. They seem to enjoy the independence of being able to drive to the store when they want to. I am not sure how to approach the subject of money with them. I have cut back on as many things as I can without offending them. For example, they had quite a few magazine subscriptions that will not be renewed. I did not renew their syrius radio. I upped all their insurance deductibles and negotiated as many medical bills as I could. I wasn't going to renew the on star in the car I am driving but that didn't go over so good. I try to be very careful how I word things so it comes across as their idea. I have to make quick decisions at work every day so transitioning to making them think they are making the decisions is somewhat difficult.

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We have had a big week. Our newest granddaughter was born Thursday. She is beautiful. Daddy and mama have had a good week. Their mix of meds seem to be working right now. Daddy hooked up his pacemaker monitor by himself. This is the first time he has shown any interest in hooking anything up since his stroke. Today he and mama drove out to my sons to see the new baby. This is the first time he has driven there since before his stroke last year. Mama is trying so hard to do things, she is just so frail. I am going to have to start chopping her food into smaller pieces because she is dropping her food.

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Cutting mamas food into smaller pieces is helping. Mama has had one bad episode where she became very stiff and said she was stuck to the floor. It took both Robbie and daddy to move her. I don't know if this is her Lewy bodies progressing or something different. I tried to get her worked in at the doctors and his first appt is 9/30. She is getting increasingly stiffer. Daddy hadn't mentioned moving back to the farm anymore. I think he realizes mama can do very little for herself

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I gave Robbie the day off. I kept the baby while Brittany worked. We ate lunch at the apartment with mama and daddy. The baby did great in the dining roo. Daddy and mama seemed to be doing ok. Mama is a bit confused about her doctors appointment tomorrow. She keeps thinking her appt is in the morning instead of tomorrow afternoon. We will discuss her rigidity and urinating on herself. I don't know if there is anything they can do but we will try. Daddy is doing better although I don't think he will ever be back to where he was.

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I took mama to the doctor today. They are checking her for a uti. We won't know for a week. The doctor mentioned the a and d words around her. I thought uh oh. I had to explain to her that there are many different types of dementia. The one they suspect her of having affects motor skills and concentration. She seemed accepting of that. I don't know if that was the right thing to say or not. I guess the visit made me a bit apprehensive. He talked about how the neurologist may not feel aricept is the best med. I did not like this neurologist when I took daddy. I hope this visit will be better.

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Mama and daddy both seemed in good spirits today. The baby is trying to walk so they enjoyed watching her all day. I fixed supper and worked on the kitchen. There is stuff everywhere. I got home and the garage had flooded, joy. I am trying to air it out because it stinks.

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Mama has had a rough couple of days. She called me 6 times yesterday because she has in her head my son is going to ask them to keep his kids on Tuesday and thurs. I keep trying to explain to her that is not going to happen. She called at 5 this morning to apologize for her outburst, her words. I told her everything is fine. In reality, I have had a migraine since Saturday. I didn't make it to work until 11:30 yesterday and got sick once on the way. I seriously considered calling in today. I took my migraine meds but they aren't doing much. I also have a bad pain in my right side. I am giving this until Friday to get better or I am calling the doc. Joy, we have a mandatory work day Saturday. I hate working Saturdays because I am salaried and we don't have comp time. We also don't have sick days. You are tequired to take vacation when you are sick. Oh well, it is a good job I am just really ready to retire. I am down to 2 Weimaraner is. Life will be less complicated once they are gone. Sorry I sound so Whiney today, this has just been a bad, tiring week

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