For the most part, Mom has always been relatively healthy until this (fractured pelvis aside!) and had only been on medication for high blood pressure. Because of how we backed into this condition, she was not on medication related to dementia / Alzheimer’s until very late in the progression. There is no cure for dementia but there are medications that slow the progression and ease the symptoms. We missed the “progression” medication and are now in the “symptoms” stage.
She has been on Zoloft for a while to manage the crying. She cried a lot, uncontrollably, and it was heartbreaking. We did not know why she was crying or how to help. Since we have been in hospice we have added Haldol to her routine. The Haldol helps with the angry, aggressive, combative behaviour we have been dealing with for the past few months. My sweet mom was biting, screaming, clawing, hitting, on and on. Even though logically we know it isn’t her, it isn’t her fault, it was horrible.
Mom also takes Trazadone at night to help her sleep, which helps my dad sleep. They still sleep in the same bed, in the same room after all these years. He will not leave her.
The point of all this is that essentially Mom does not take a lot of medication; four pills a day. The other day she was feeling particularly feisty and after breakfast when I tried to give her her two morning pills she cupped her fingers around her mouth and spit one of them across the living room like she was spitting a watermelon seed. I was frustrated that she didn’t get the medicine in. I wanted to be mad at her for spitting them, but all I could do was laugh. This disease has cruelly taught me that if i don’t laugh I will cry and I have done a lot of both.
She’s still in there somewhere.