My mother called me a few minutes ago. She is in Washington, DC for a coneference of some sort (she's been doing many such things now that my brother and I are both out of the house). She had just received a call from the nursing home where my grandmother is currently residing. My grandmother had gone off on a tirade demanding to know why she was being held at the facility and why she couldn't go home.

Of course, the fundamental problem is that her not knowing either of these things is why she is at the facility. Essentially, for the last several years, my grandmother has been slowly succumbing to dementia. This finally manifested a month or so ago when she had a dental appointment. Rather than going to the dentist, she ended up in a medical facilities building (the type with numerous doctor's offices, labs, etc.) at a hospital across town from the dentist. While there, she told people that she had an appointment with Dr. Beam. For those not aware, Dr. Beam was my (and my brother's) pediatrician when we were very young. He has never, to my knowledge, been in the dentistry business. She was thus admitted to the hospital where the professionals there quickly realized that she had serious memory issues. After a short stay at the hospital, she was moved to an adjoining nursing home where she was to undergo rehabilitation/therapy until she could be moved into assisted living.

Unfortunately, she has thus far caused several serious problems which have continuously complicated the matter. Firstly, there are her periodic tirades where she demands to know why she is at the facility or to know why she's never seen a doctor (hint: she has). Secondly, about a week ago, while angry with my mother (who my grandmother blames for the entire situation), my grandmother threatened to commit suicide in front of medical staff. This led to her being taken to a diagnostic psych ward for evaluation. All of this had led to increasing complications with actually getting her into assisted living. The former one led to her being rejected from one facility due to their inability to have monitored exists (there is serious fear that she would simply wander out of the facility if left unsupervised). The latter has increased the time that she will likely need to stay in the nursing home.

Now, to today, my grandmother had apparently be doing relatively well for the past several days since she has been on medication (both the anti-anxiety kind and the anti-dementia kind). However, her fit today has likely set back the chance of getting her into more appropriate conditions--where she might be able to start adapting to a better environment--by an unknown amount. In a sense, her fate is the kind I fear the most. She has a body which, for her age, is in remarkably good condition. Unfortunately, her mind is so far gone as to make extended conversation with her painful and I suspect things will only get worse from here.

Published by XPost^curses