Why did the defense refuse to acknowledge that senile dementia played a role in Weller’s behavior before, during, and after the accident? He had some form of senile dementia at the time of the accident. Whatever happens is someone else’s fault, as I discussed in an earlier blog entry comparing my mother’s words to Weller’s after the accident. For 25 minutes Monday, a judge attacked George Russell Weller’s “enormous indifference” and “unbelievable callousness” in running down and killing 10 pedestrians in a Santa Monica open-air market. The judge apparently thinks older drivers also have the same responsibility to show up in court and apologize for their actions. The 89-year-old deserved prison for his crime, the judge said. But now her health has stabilized, with all this excellent care. All this care kept her safe–and it even saved her life when she had an allergic reaction at 1 am in June, 2005, and the Caregiver Training Online was able to respond and call 911 when her swollen tongue and throat had blocked her breathing. Life goes on, and it has to. They are there and need family to help guide them to the finish line of their life on Earth. Others say there are plenty of dangerous drivers under 75. Okay, let’s all take driving tests every year.
Based on that statistic, we spent money freely to give her the best possible arrangements for her last year or two. But at this rate her money will last only one more year, and it looks as if her health may last several more years. There is a large selection of very interesting articles, blogs, and research located on their website located here: Psych Central – Mental health & psychology information and support. While there isn’t a cure for dementia, there are treatments that can help people live well with dementia. Like I said, it’s easy-not filled with a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo that regular people like you and me can’t understand-and there are many helpful tips. But my brother Bill said, “She will go through it in medical bills before she dies. Most people do.” He’s a surgeon, and in following elderly patients, he has seen it happen. We didn’t realize, at first, that a tropical storm was following us in. People in this stage have basically no ability of speaking or communicating. People with MCI have cognitive challenges, but they have not advanced to dementia. Scientists have found a number of genes responsible for causing Alzheimer’s disease but persons with a family history of the disease are at an elevated risk of developing the disease.
How long will I continue to lose a fair chunk of my time, at an age when the number of productive years I have left is shrinking rapidly? If you have young children they could be the recipients of your efforts or you could find a homeless shelter, nursing home, or other place that may need a helping hand. It was, however, a horrible experience for dad – these events often came in winter, and being moved out into the cold night air when he should have been tucked up in a warm bed was, in my view, a particularly sadistic form of ‘care’ that would leave him upset, disorientated and confused. She told anyone who would listen, “Anne’s trying to kill me.” That was her explanation for why I had removed the night caregivers. The alternative was to put her back into a SNF, where she would be strapped into a chair during the day and strapped into a hospital bed at night (or kept in a bed with full-length bars raised instead of a restraint over her waist. That was about $7,000 per month for the maximum level of care, which she needed–incontinence care, bathing, dressing and undressing, being taken to meals and put to bed.
But still she was angry with me–she was used to having someone at her side to respond to her fears and dreams during the night, as well as to give her a sip of orange juice, put soothing music on the CD player, and change her Depends. All this because of her dementia–to keep her from getting out of her chair or bed and falling, and to give her someone to dress her, tend to her, and talk with her. But I’m willing to give up convenience to save lives. Rather than standing firm on paint colors, save your energy for safety issues. ” I feel a little better about getting if I am giving! The group that took PS did significantly better in both behavior and mental function than the placebo group. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a group of disorders that occur when the nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain are damaged, causing the lobes to shrink. The term ‘dementia’ is used to describe the symptoms that occur when the brain is affected by certain diseases and conditions, such as memory loss. This results in the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The results were shocking.
