montellocamper
Caring for my mom Member since February 16, 2009I noticed that my 80-year old mother was having short-term memory issues over the summer. I had her formally evaluated at our local hospital in early August and she was diagnosed with MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment). Since February 2009 she called 911 eleven times, always with the same symptoms (chest pain). After numerous hospitalizations, and thousands of dollars worth of diagnostic tests, her doctors said it was more depression,anxiety and memory loss related than cardiac related. (she didn't realize she was calling 911 so often). Her short-term memory also started decreasing rapidly. After the last hospitalization at the end of August, she was deemed incompetent and I was told she could no longer live alone and I had to find her a nursing home. It hasn't been easy..Some days are better than others for her. She is the third one in her family to develop this dementia. Her other 2 siblings (brothers) are already deceased from Alzheimers. I continue to struggle on how to communicate with her so as not to cause her further anxiety and aggressive behavior. She still thinks she's "going home" but that is not possible any longer because I had to sell her mobile home (lease was about to expire) and she doesn't know about it. I took all her important papers and personal belongings to my house and put them in my basement for safekeeping, and donated a lot of items to local charities. I've attended an Alzheimers Caregivers Conference recently which provided me with a wealth of information, plus have read a couple of books to try and educate myself about dementia and the different phases I can expect her to go through. I'm also trying to get her covered under Medicaid because she doesn't have a means to pay for her nursing home care by herself. She has no savings, and only earns Social security and a small pension.