Annie: "Dr. Grumpy's office, this is Annie."
Mrs. Amyloid: "Hi, I just saw a TV commercial for Noforget, and want to take it."
Annie: "Okay, let me look at your chart... you are taking it."
Mrs. Amyloid: "I am? I didn't know I take any pills."
Annie (sighs): "Yes, your husband gives them to you each day. He reviewed them with Dr. Grumpy at your appointment last week."
Mrs. Amyloid: "My husband sees Dr. Grumpy? Should I make an appointment, too?"
Annie: "No, you're okay. Your husband is handling it all, so you don't need to."
Mrs. Amyloid: "What's Noforget used for, anyway?"
Annie: "Memory problems."
Mrs. Amyloid: "Do I have those?"
Annie: "Yes."
Mrs. Amyloid: "Nobody told me that. Why did you call me, anyway?"
I would say that the medication is not very effective for this lady.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a conversation we'd have with my father-in-law.
ReplyDelete$Diety bless her husband.
ReplyDeletestay safe.
Ok, Now that you have scared the crap out of your entire following, Have a nice Day.
ReplyDeleteIn a way this is a perfect anecdote - for one end of the spectrum (call it young and/or oblivious), it's just funny. The other end is those older and/or experienced, for whom it's painful and/or tender and/or stoic.
ReplyDeleteAssuming most of us are somewhere along that spectrum, it speaks to nearly everyone in one way or another.
A brief peek into the "36 hour day" that is the life of a demented person and primary caregiver/partner. Think "50 first dates" and "Groundhog day" playing simultaneously, endlessly. It's an alternate universe that none of us would choose to enter.
ReplyDeleteSounds better than my dad's patients. Back when TV advertisements were allowed for prescription medication, without saying what they were for, my dad started getting calls demanding he prescribe a drug that was for a condition the patient didn't even have! Even when the adds started saying what the medication was for this didn't completely go away.
ReplyDeleteCompared to that, calling the right doctor, asking for the right medication, for the right condition, sounds pretty good; despite the issue that she doesn't remember that she is already on the medicine.
Though it sounds like without her husband's help she might not be well medicated enough to remember what she was doing long enough to dial. So mixed bag there.
May I please have permission to laugh?
ReplyDeletePoor lady. Yay Anne!
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday my wife's family met to discuss her mother's status and what to do from here. "mom" is a manipulative, scheming overweight shrew who has her own version of reality. "Pop" was abused by his mom and married a woman just like her. He lacks a spine and testicles. Mom is currently in a nursing home against her will. Pop lives in another wing that is the Assisted Living wing. The kids (and their spouses) lives are all wrapped up in the drama and have been played against each other all their lives by mom. They have just recently figured this all out and have become the friends they should always have been were it not for their parents. Mom want's to move back in with pop. NO ONE wants that even pop but because he is her slave, at the meeting he says he does. Thank God the staff there know what is really going and that mom is nowhere near well. She's BETTER thanks to the meds they give her now but she is still far from functionally sane. We wish she was forgetful as opposed to twisting everything into what she want's to believe.
ReplyDeletePosted anonymously for all too obvious reasons.
This was like having a conversation with my dad when he was in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's. It made me miss him terribly, and as odd as it sounds, I would love to be able to have one of these conversations with him again.
ReplyDeletePacker, if this scared Dr. Grumpy's followers, then maybe that's a good thing. June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, so what better way to raise awareness than to instill a bit of fear?
Annie is a blessing, and I admire the way she handled this. You are very fortunate to have such wonderful staff, Dr. G.
And, yeah... it's okay to laugh. A sense of humor is critical to survive caring for someone with dementia. Otherwise, you'll spend your days crying, not that you don't do that anyway.
Thanks, Dr. Grumpy, for another great post.
Reminds me of my grandmother. When she was in the relatively early stages of dementia, we placed her in assisted living. She of course, didn't want to be there and would always ask to go home. One day she asked why she has to stay there, so we told her, "Well it's because you were forgetting things." Her response? "I don't remember that." It's either laugh or cry - I choose to laugh.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the Therapeutic Index on Noforget? Any chance you could raise her daily dose? Just a suggestion...
ReplyDeleteKind of sounds like it isn't working lol.
ReplyDelete