Hello - I am new to this group. My wife has Alz - fairly advanced at this point. We are both in out late 50's - needless to say, this is not what I expected to be doing at this time in our lives.
Sorry for the length of this - but, just to mention a few things I have read about on this group: - my wife gets 25mg of seroquel at noon, and the same at about 6PM. It has been a life-saver for me. She also gets trazadone at night for sleep. And her doctor recently switched her from Aracept pills to Exelon patches - the patches are great because she does have problems with pills - always did. - I have caregivers in 4 days a week for 8 hours, so I can get a break, and get out and do some exercise, run errands, visit my 89 year old mom who is starting to have memory problems, etc. Another life saver. Nights were a real problem - lots of late night drives to calm her down - but the trazadone has helped a lot. Still, a drive is the one thing that always distracts her and calms her down. Putting lots of miles on the car - and spending a LOT on gas! - I attend a local support group, but it is not that valuable - too small, their situations are too stable, etc. Half the members have lost loved ones but keep coming for friendship, to give support, etc. I do participate in 2 online groups on Yahoo - those have been useful - but mostly people caring for parents or in-laws - this group is unique in that it deals exclusively (or primarily) with spouses. It always seemed to me that we were especially hurt by this, since we are losing a life partner, our best friend, etc.
My question is about going to the dentist. My wife ALWAYS hated the dentist - had good teeth, so never developed the habit. She is not complaining about any pain, but I know she needs a deep cleaning, and maybe other work. But I cannot imagine getting her into the chair, or having her worked on, or dealing with post-care pain, etc. So I am just curious what and how others are doing about this. A friend said ignore it for now, if she is not complaining. I spoke to my dentist, and she said she has some experience with Alz (her mother has it) - but I am not sure about experience with patients. What sedatives might work? I have lorazepam (Ativan) for her anxiety - seems like I will need a LOT of that! <g> For her, and for me, too! But what about a stronger anesthetic during the dental work?
Welcome to the group. I think you'll find this is a wonderful place to get help and support. I am so very sorry about your wife -- AD is bad enough, but for it to start at such a young age.
Quick answer to your question -- see the thread: Dental stuff..............help! It's pretty recent. Use the Search button at the top of the page to locate it, either by entering "dental" as a topic, or "dentist" or "dental" as a comment.
The discussion Sunshyne is referring to is on page 3 of this board. It is titled "dental stuff.........help."
Welcome to my website. I hope you can take some time to look at the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com - there is so much helpful information and support. You are so correct in saying - "this group is unique in that it deals exclusively (or primarily) with spouses. It always seemed to me that we were especially hurt by this, since we are losing a life partner, our best friend, etc."
Many, many of my Blogs deal with that issue - See "Previous Blogs" on the left side of the website's homepage. Also, in the "Articles of Interest" section on the left side, you may be interested in the articles under the topic "Love and Marriage."
There is a new section on EOAD on the left side of the home page- Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease, which apparently applies to your wife. That has two videos about EOAD, one of them featuring spouses from this board. Many of our readers are struggling with their spouses' EOAD. If you go to the "search" button at the top of this page, click the circle "topics", and type in EOAD, those discussions will come up. If you circle "comments", and put in "Tony", all of Tony's comments will come up. He is a regular on this board - a 50 year old man dealing with his 43 year-old wife's advanced AD. Tony has become an avocate for raising awareness about EOAD. He and I attended the Alzheimer's Public Policy Forum in May in Washington DC. There is also a section for that on the left side of the website.
As you can see, we have much to offer here. I hope you will visit often.
I started the post about the dental stuff. I was actually sick at my stomach previous to the appointment, just KNOWING that my LO was going to refuse to go in the office, refuse to sit the chair, refuse to open, yell, who knows? I had nightmares about all of it.
And it went fine. I used a wheelchair to get her in, made sure my dentist was comfortable with an AD patient, and everything went FINE. I was all worked up and knotted up and it went FINE!!!!
GO for it. You'll never know until you try, and the worst that can happen is, well, whatever your nightmare is. But if it doesn't, then you've done a good thing!!
Yup, I already asked the "What is the worst thing that can happen?" question on another support board. If you actually think through the WORST some of the time it turns out that the worst thing that can happen can also have positive as well as negative results. And most of the time the WORST doesn't happen.