@MAmomto4 in my experience, none of those things address vertigo or balance issues. Can you get a referral to a PT who does tests for BPPV, vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis?
The things the doc is doing may exclude some causes (good to test for UTI for the behavior changes). But there are straightforward nystagmus tests simple to diagnose some causes of vertigo and pretty simple to treat, so if the PT’'s eval was positive that could save some trouble.
Are her legs slipping out from under her due to balance and dizziness issues or from weakness?
I’m not sure about the cause of the leg slipping. She says she was “just standing there and my leg slid out from under me.” She actually has an appointment with a PT she really likes next week (follow up from breaking her ankle at Christmas), so I’ll have her ask if the PT can do that test or if not, if she knows someone who can.
My uncle, who is in his 80’s, started falling out of nowhere - he said his legs just gave out. It turned out that he had some sort of back issue. I can’t remember exactly what was wrong, probably related to nerve damage - he ended up getting spacers in his neck, a rod in his back, and some nerves “cleaned out” (whatever that means). The doctors initially told him that they didn’t know what was causing it, he was going to have to live with the situation, and that he would probably have to go to a nursing home. A really great resident at the hospital figured out what was causing his issues, he had surgery, and now he is recovering. It’s a really difficult recovery, but he considers it worth it.
Wish me luck! Going with dh to take care of mom for six days and to give my sibs a break. Truthfully she sounds pretty stable, though is perseverating about money. She keeps moviing money in the house around. My poor sister is trying to figure out where all she’s hiding it.
My mother’s decline started with a bad headache that she had during water aerobics. She had visited me the summer before and she seemed fine except that she lost her balance when she leaned forward a bit. After the bad headache episode she walked hunched over and clung to the walls in her home to get around (my sisters tried to get her to use a Walker, but she wouldn’t).
She had a severe stroke a few months after the bad headache and passed away six months later.
When she had the bad headache the doctors just sent her home and told her to watch her blood pressure. I think they also gave her a steroid of some type. I’m not local, but in talking to my sister, I felt at the time that the doctor had disregarded her symptoms, and I regret not insisting that they do more tests or keep her in the hospital for observation (she got up at 2am the next morning, drove into town thinking it was time for her follow up appointment, and got lost and drove over the curb into someone’s yard - she was quite functional before the headache).
I’m glad your mother went to the doctor and I hope the testing will address her issues. My mother was Native American and went to a Tribal hospital, which is a nice facility, but I don’t think the care was of a high standard.
I’m definitely keeping an eye on her and going to follow up with the tests. It is a little tricky because I’m trying to balance addressing real concerns, not encouraging her to worry/catastrophize, and respecting her independence.
Supposed to go see Mom/Dad this weekend. Real conversation today after I got a text from Mom asking me to call
M : coughing I am so much better
Me: okay, what did you need
M: you shouln’t come
Me: becauuuuuse?
M: you might catch my cold
Me: You sound terrible
M:coughing, puts down the phone
Don’t tell your brothers
Me: but you are better?
M : oh I am. I’m going to (volunteer shift) in a while
Me: No, that’s a bad idea. Did it snow?
M: coughing more It did. Just a coughing
M: just a little. Like 6"
Me: Mom, you can’t drive in the snow with a cough
M: promise you won’t come, you can’t get sick
Me: from the cold you don’t have anymore?
I eventually convinced her to stay home, and to use her inhaler (“Oh, that might help!” ) . and then I called Local Sibling, who went out to check on her and Dad.
I have POA because my father’s assisted living required a third party to have POA. I know there are limitations to it (I tried to get my name added to a bank account but I could not, because it’s a trust not an individual account–my dad’s caution has come back to bite him here). However, I have been able to use the POA to set up electronic arrangements for medical insurance, other forms of insurance, etc. It’s helpful but not a magic wand.
Well, I leave my mom’s tomorrow. She’s doing amazingly. Only real issue is she “lost” her credit card here at the house yesterday. Couldn’t find it or her purse. We weren’t worried as we knew she hadn’t left here with it, but she got really upset by that. Of course, we found it, but she had a “headache” that night and wanted to go to bed early, clearly slightly depressed. I gave her an anxiety pill, which really worked. She went to bed at the appropriate time and slept really well and made up for not being that hungry at dinner with devouring a huge breakfast before 8 a.m. today.
My siblings and SIL are doing really well. My mom has some incredibly lucid moments where she totally sees what’s going on. She said the thing that most worries her is my brother, in part, because he “won’t talk about Dad being gone.” I told her that he’s worried about upsetting her. When she has a hiccup and asks where Dad is, my brother will say things like he’s resting when the rest of us tell her he’s passed. She doesn’t get upset at the information; she’s more like 'Ugh, I keep forgetting that." I told her that if she wants to talk to him about Dad passing she could bring it up, though I doubt she’d ever do that.
Yeah, mom sometimes knows dad died a few years ago and sometimes tells us to us dad when she doesn’t know the answer and wants us to remember to have dad get his shots when we all do.
Home now. My SIL, who hadn’t been there the past four days because we were there, couldn’t believe how good she looks and behaved. Clearly the greatest source of tension is between my SIL and sister. SIL is there the most during mom’s awake hours so i think she gets to have the more autonomy than I think my sister wants to give her. They just do things really differently. I talked to my sister about assuming good intent. I forgot to do the same with my SIL. I’ll be back there next weekend as ds1 and his wife are coming in to see mom. Hope things are still good when I get there.
Early on in my mom’s decline, she knew who everyone was, but once asked me if I thought my sister could be pregnant as she’d gained some weight. My sister was 60 at the time. Around the same time, my sister told my mother that she (my sister) was too old to do something. My mom replied “Pshhh, I was able to do cartwheels at your age.” I don’t recall my mother ever doing a cartwheel and she had me at 22.
I think she may have been able to recognize all the family members until shortly before she died, I walked in to see her after she had her severe stroke (she passed six months later), and she didn’t even say hi, she asked “Where’s Mr. Least Complicated?”. She really liked my husband; he was her preferred son in law.
