Dear Sharon Headley-- I have indeed had such experience, in the case
of my husband, who was also one of the 1/3 of PWPs to get progressive
dementia. He died on June 6,2001, of end stage PD,with dementia that
made it impossible to care for him at home. As he by his own choice
(not like your sister) decided to enter a nursing home and then
stopped eating, we were able to call in Hospice care for the last
weeks of his life. At that point he was given Ativan, an
anti-psychotic which did control his combativeness and hallucinations
and yet kept him lucid so that he knew us. This is a very
abbreviated version, as many on the list have heard the story
before. You may email me offlist for more details, if you wish. In
his case, the balance between PD meds for mobility and
anti-psychotics for clarity was a very fine line indeed. His neuro
told us that the hallucinations could be controlled somewhat, but the
underlying dementia could not be cured. I have a number of resources
re: dementia and also suggest you visit the CARE website (URL is
below my signature) where you will find many resources on the
subject. All CGs who have dealt with this agree it is MUCH harder to
handle than the physical aspects of PD !
I would also strongly suggest that you join us on CARE, the list for
CGs of PWPs, where there are a number of CGs who deal with the
problems you mentioned. Please note I will immediately post the
instructions for doing so as I try to do this frequently on PIEN, and
with all he other discussion, it has been a while !.
--
Camilla Flintermann, former CG for Peter 83/70/55
Oxford, Ohio
<[log in to unmask]>
on the web at http://www.geocities.com/camillahf/index.html
"Ask me about the CARE list for Caregivers of Parkinsonians ! "
And visit the CARE webring at http://www.pdcaregiver.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
