Side Effects

After getting Mom into to see her primary care Dr, who was almost positive her cancer had returned, wanted her to see a neurologist. With no insurance at the time, my sister and I set out to get her approved for ALTCS . Because Mom had no assets, no money to speak of, we were able to get her approved immediately!
So, of we go to our first neurologist. He of course orders a battery of tests........ MRI, cat scan, etc etc. He also does the Folstein Memory test. She fails it.
Your mother has Alzheimer's Disease give her this medicine, Aricept come back to see me in a month. WOW! OK, this is pretty simple. What he didn't tell me is all the side affects that could happen ... she fell, she wanted to sleep all the time. You name it she experienced it. So now we go back a month later, I explain to him all the side effects. He changes it to Reminyl... again come back to see me in a month. WOW! The side effects for this one was 10000 times worse than the first. I still to this day see her laying on her bed, doubled over wishing to die!
One month later ........ he basically said, well your mother has Alzheimer's and there is nothing more I can do for her......... Have a nice day! Did I mention he was a foreigner who spoke less than desirable English? GEEZE!
I informed him if the side affects were worse than the damn disease, we would just have to deal with the disease without the drugs. This is my mother, I am not going to give her something that makes her wish she wants to die!
With that, I gathered Mom up and out the door we went, never to go back. We did see another neuro that again, had a problem with the Englishe language, who said the same thing. So, no more visits to them. If you can't help her, toodles... we won't be back.

To this day ......... we have not been back to neurologist!

The Beginning of the Journey

In December of 2002 my worst nightmare began.
My mother was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, later to be diagnosed with Vascular Dementia.
Going back in time....... In September of 2001, myself, Alicia and Angelique (2 weeks old) moved in with my mom until we found a new home( long story there) We never left.
Fast forward to May 2002...... One Sunday all the kids were at the house. Mom had fallen asleep in her chair for a few minutes... when she woke up, she tried to get up from her chair. Her left side was completely limp. After we all tried to get her to go to the hospital, I called the paramedics. They tried in earnest to get her to go to the hospital. She flat refused to go. Because I didn't have her POA "yet" I couldn't make her go. We went on our vacation to Kentucky a week later. She appeared to be just fine. It wouldn't be for months later we would start our nightmare journey in to the Alzheimer hell.