He has been on namenda and aricept for 20 years. A palliative care doc advised me to wean him off of these two. Famimly doc says ok, but his condition will deteriorate a lot faster. He is functioning, but ADLs are slipping. He can’t read, can’t drive, won’t shower, wears dirty clothes, won’t leave the house.
Should he come off these drugs or not? Now it seems like a moral dilemma.
My condolences on your situation.
Your husband is dying because of this horrific disease, so why would you want to prolong the inevitable anyway?
You could also take him off one of them, see how it goes, then take him off of the other one. That would be the conservative approach.
Perhaps talk to a pharmacist and see which one the pharmacist would discontinue first.
That will be helpful.
Really, in general, and in terms of advice, you should consult legal experts (Attorneys), Medical experts (docs) and financial experts (financial concerns) for questions in those fields.
You are new here. You won't find doctors, attorneys and financial experts on this forum, just a bunch of caregivers. So do know that your discussions with your doctors about their reasons to give or withdraw medications will be crucial. Also not easy.
There is really no cure here.
You are looking to hope to stop progression being rapid and you are looking to relieve symptoms.
Again, Welcome to the Forum.
Mom was on those drugs for about 16 years. I ended up taking her off of the drugs when she got chronic UTI's. One of the side effects was urinary issues on one of them. The UTI's stopped when taking her off. We saw no change after we took her off of the drugs and she lived another 4 years after that.
You could always try taking him off (I'd do a taper) and evaluate and put him back on the drugs if you think you need to.
Our family chose to continue dementia meds (rivastigmine) even when Mom was on hospice in order to prevent cognitive decline, and in her case we feel it was the right decision.
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