Medical Woes

The geriatric psychiatrist finally examined Bev on Tuesday. Diagnosis: Alzheimer’s disease, which I have learned is a type of dementia. I am attempting to get in touch with the psychiatrist to find out the stage and prognosis. The nurses accidentally gave me the name of the geriatric neuropsychologist to phone yesterday (instead of the psychiatrist) and when I called her, she said that she had never even met or assessed Bev. The neuropsychologist was very nice, though, and did promise to drop in on Bev today. Now I have to hunt down the psychiatrist who actually performed the dementia evaluation. Whew. Psychiatrist. Neuropsychologist. You would think a nurse would know the difference, and be able to give a patient’s family the right doctor with whom to make contact. Jim and I have appointments to check out a few more dementia extended care places on Saturday. The reality that Bev will never go home or be her old self again is finally setting in for Jim and his siblings, and it is really quite disheartening.

Bev is still delusional, and, yes, she is pretty funny even now. At least she has been less anxious and agitated the past few days. Her distressing delusions have not been too prevalent lately, due partly to her medications. A lot of the time, she thinks that she is either at a hotel, at her sister’s house (“breaking in”), awaiting surgery of some sort or another, or wandering around downtown Detroit where she used to live. She did decline a trip “to London with the girls to attend the King’s wedding," though, because she did not want to fly that far. Sigh. I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on Alzheimer's patients to try to determine exactly how and why they come up with some of the things that they say. It would be interesting, that’s for sure. I commented to the workers at Bev’s rehab place that they must hear some wild stories, like how we had been in jail, for example. We all had a good chuckle about that one again.

My brother’s mother-in-law has - sadly - been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She did beat cancer in the past, so hopefully she can hang in there and defeat it again. I am certainly ready to hear some good news from the medical front any day now.