re-evaluation

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my mom was re-evaluated by the Outreach Geriatric Mental

Health Team in her home. They were there from 10:30am til 1:00pm.

It is an occupational therapist who does the testing and evaluation

on Mom directly and then the nurse sits with my sister and I and we

fill her in on what's been happening. I had typed up some sheets

with my questions and then descriptions of mom's developments in all

areas with subheadings like Emotional/Social/Depression;

Physical/Falls; Hallucinations/Delusions; Strengths;

Cognitive/Memory. Also included a picture of her bruised face from

her last fall at Easter. They found this very useful and so did I

because I didn't have to remember everything.

When the ot finished the testing she came to where we were and

marked the mini-mental test in front of us. Mom scored 27/30 last

March and 22/30 yesterday. No surprise. There are many more

evaluations she did that have to be studied and then she and the

nurse will sit with the Geriatric psychologist and reevaluate mom

and let us know the results. She is not ready for nursing home

placement yet.

She is still on her own with Supervision. It's not a retirement

home but a seniors' building with a caregiving service that is

free. They look after her meds, monitor baths 2x a week, houseclean

1x aweek and will eventually help with laundry, dressing and food.

She fights the whole situation saying that she is in a prison etc.

because she has to phone them whenever she leaves the building and

just can't get past that.

They are also going to reevaluate her meds. We were told that they

will never recommend taking her off the Reminyl because it helps

with the automatic body functions even when the cognitive ones are

gone. But eventually they will do the memantine route. They are

also going to look into the Wellbutrin because her depression does

not seem to be getting any better as is evidenced by the

comment, " Oh I'm getting worse. Why don't I just lay down and

die? "

I had watched the DVD and marked the comment made by the researcher

that in LBD the main area of loss is less memory and more the

ability to focus and concentrate. Ifound that quite interesting.

Well in mom's mini mental test, the area where she lost most points

was sure enough the focussing and concentration area. They told us

that that is one of the main differences in AD and lBD. In AD the

memory is definitely the first to go and just keeps progressing.

I'm glad I had seen the dvd.

Anyway just wanted to send an update. Take care everyone. Doris in

Mississauga, Canada

[Guest guest]

I just read somewhere recently, LBD needs to be very careful with the

Wellbutrin. Wish I knew were I read it. Maybe someone here knows?

Donna R

Do you want to read more about Lewy Body? You can also read the Thistle, the

LBD Newsletter. Just click on:

http://www.lewybodydementia.org

re-evaluation