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Diagnostic categories are one thing; what the client needs is something else. The AAA should be able to tell you what mom NEEDS. Just make sure you are there when they assess.
Your mom sounds as though she is still very independent and has good skills. Does the facility in question have an Independent Living part?
For my mom, for a good chunk of time, she simply needed to be in a place that provided meals and the opportunity to go to activities.
To many aging adults, their "kids" are just that....kids. Don't know anything about anything. (Fortunately, my mother is not like that, but my mother in law was, as are several other relatives). They don't credit their children with being smart, or knowing about the world.
You really need, as others have said here, to see if mom has friends or relatives in various nice facilities, and to get her doctor to talk about the benefits of group living for her mental and physical health.
The important thing is to make the story about what's best for her and what she would like, so that it's a positive choice rather than a forced change.
What's available around your area? Does your mother have friends of her own age, maybe even some who are also considering their care plans?
He was quite relieved when mom told him that she'd moved to an Independent Living facility and was giving the activities a try after a couple of months of keeping to herself. Have you considered something like a senior center or AL for your mom?
If you haven't already, I would do your best to get her checked over physically - heart function and renal function, bloods, thyroid, the usual suspects in the medical Rogues' Gallery - and while you're at it get her mental state assessed. I know it can seem too easy an answer, but anti-depressants do *work*, is the thing. Well worth a try if it gets her out of this awful downward spiral.
Best of luck, anyway, and please do come back and let us know how you're getting on.
The Mayo clinic has developed a intensive program for people with MCI, called HABIT. You can read about it here: http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/psychiatry-psychology/mci-interventions-aid-patients-and-caregivers
I know someone who went through the HABIT program several years ago. He still uses the tools and techniques he learned there. His MCI symptoms have not increased. In fact, there has been some improvements. When I first met him he could only write in short bursts of words. Now he is back to writing sentences. He still drives.
I don't know what your mother's doctor's classes are like, but I do want to endorse the notion that unlike dementia MCI has some possibility for improvement or at least stability. Would you mother be willing to take the classes?
MCI does not go away. It may or may not progress into dementia, sooner or later. Not much help, huh?
About the television watching: Could you at least encourage a broader variety in the programming? Try something familiar and funny. A DVD of old I Love Lucy episodes, for example. Try something uplifting. Maybe an animal movie if animals appeal to her. Music? Lawrence Welk or even Liberace? Or maybe Joan Baez is more her style. If she is just going to sit there at least encourage a variety of stimulation.
Good luck!
It must be very hard for you to see these changes. How has your mother reacted to her diagnosis?
Um, this is even harder to ask nicely, but here goes. How does it come about that you are waiting for a time frame to know when you can lead your own life instead of living your mother's life? Is that roughly what's been happening?
Her doctor prescribed Aricept. Mom did not take it long because of the side effects. Aricept has been FDA approved only for Alzheimer's. Most doctors routinely prescribe it off-label for MCI and suspected dementia of any kind. It doesn't work well for very many people but there is nothing better on the market for that population and if, by chance, the patient was one of minority it worked for wouldn't that be awesome.
Aricept worked extremely well for my husband who did not have Alzheimer's for which the drug was developed but Lewy Body Dementia. Hubby took it the entire 10 years of his dementia journey. It was discontinued when he went on hospice, but quickly added back -- it was still helping him!
There is certainly a reason that some people do well on Aricept and others do not. The problem is, we don't know that reason! The only way to find out is to try it.
Here is one description of what Aricept does (when it works): "may improve memory, awareness, and the ability to function." Observe closely if that seems to be working for your mother. If you see no improvement after all the months she has been taking it, discuss with her doctor whether she might be one of those people this drug just doesn't work for.
Are you employed, Erin? One advantage of an MIC diagnosis is it allows lots of time to plan ahead. Remember, this may NOT progress into dementia. But you can think ahead just in case and have at least some ideas for her care.
Do it now might be a good motto. If you and your mom always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, do it now. Travel may become more difficult or impossible if her condition progresses.
How are you feeling about life in general, and in particular about continuing to care for your mother at home?
I'm sure the GP was doing the right thing for his patient, but as a layman I'm guessing the specialist would rather have seen your mother before she started the Aricept. Still! - can't be helped; and in any case the impression I have, from memory clinics and similar, is that diagnosing very precisely what is going on tends to be more art than science.
Also - aside from some salient features of particular types of dementia that you really do need to be ready for, and they tend to make themselves known without assistance whether you go looking for them or not - it doesn't make that much difference in terms of care or treatment.
Is anything worrying you that has prompted you to contact the forum today?
My mother was diagnosed with MCI after she entered Independent Living; she had been living alone at home with some assistance that we had brought in, but she was having panic attacks all the time: weather, burned out light bulb, etc. These all led to hysterical phone calls insisting that we must come and fix something, immediately.
Once she was safely ensconced in a nice IL, she started seeing both an on-site geriatrics doctor and a geriatric psychiatrist. Both insisted that mom be worked up by a team of neurologist/neuropsychologist/psychiatric nurse/brain imaging to determine what was going on.
Family members (and mom) resisted this; mom was "sharp as a tack" and mom said "I'm not crazy". We got the assessments and they showed a huge decline in mom's ability to think and reason. MCI was diagnosed; brain imaging showed a stroke that had previously gone undetected.
The MCI did not appear to progress, but 18 months later, mom had a much bigger stroke which led to vascular dementia.
Do you mind if I ask why you ask?
There are dozens of different types of dementia, with Alzheimers and vascular dementia being the commonest and Alzheimers ahead by some lengths. If the person you're asking about has other medical conditions, that can be a useful starting point for distinguishing which sorts of impairment may go on to become a problem.
With amnesiac features means memory loss is there as well. Sometimes Mci does not progess, but a person with mci is at higher risk for developing dementia.
To me, it is mostly a matter of degree.