I'm back again taking care of my 93 year old mother, I've been here nearly 3 weeks. It's been a bit easier than the last few times because a few things have changed. She now sees a geriatric psychiatrist who has fine tuned her medications. My Mom used to take Aricept orally for her dementia which gave her stomach problems that resulted in frequent emergency room visits. Dr. Luis Allen, in Orlando, has given her the same medication in a patch; that's made such a big difference. She's eating better, no stomach issues and best of all I haven't seen the inside of the local emergency room. The other issue that made caring for her, in the past, very frustrating was that each evening she would get hyper; now I give her 1/2 of a Seroquel and she is calmer and she sleeps until 9 AM. I get to go to the gym at 6:30 and she's still asleep when I get back. These small changes have made such a difference. It's really important to get to the right doctor, who is very familiar with the issues of the elderly.
