Hey Charlotte, I just read these articles because it doesnt seem like the depakote is working enough.
Ended up doing a search on the title and your comment here came up in the search! Kind of cool.
Years ago I worked in a prison hospital for mentally and dangerous. They were on these meds. Sometimes a list that took up half a.page single spaced, small font. You can see why I wanted to try non-medication interventions first.
This week s full moon again. A red moon, whatever that means. I have had to lock myself in my safe room two nights and leave the house several times during the day. Will send email to psychiatrist. Appt isn't til end of August. These articles talk about depakote and seroquel sounds even worse.
bhv, my wife is on maximum dose of depakote. It wasn't enough so they added topamax on top of it and that did the trick once they got the dosage correct. Depakote and topamax are related and complementary and there is no danger of adding topamax when the depakote is maxed out. Since the depakote isn't working enough I am wondering if he needs a higher dosage.
My husband was only on Namenda and Aricept for 2 years before he had the episode that ended up with him in the Geriatric Psych ward. At that time, they started him on anti-psychotic drugs and nothing worked. He was there 2 weeks and didn't sleep, walked the halls, very agitated. They said he talked to the machines like they were me. We then moved him to a larger facility where they did additional testing to see if there was something other than ALZ that caused the rapid decline. They again tried different cocktails of drugs and nothing helped. They said they were treating him for dillarium and nothing could pull him out of it. Anyway, he ended up in Hospice and died after 3 days. I told his story on another board for new members, but up until that Thursday he was functioning, driving, etc. On the day he ended up in the hospital he drove me to work.
I guess I wonder if I did the right thing by letting them give him all of those drugs. Maybe he would have come back on his own. He was 70 and in perfect physical health. They diagnosed him 1 1/2 ago with ALZ. For 4 years all they would say is age related. But it for the most part was a good 4 years. I lost him in a month and 1/2.
I know it is hard, but you need to stop second guessing yourself. If you had done nothing and let it play out, then you would be wondering if you should have tried the drugs. This is a no win disease. Try to be glad he went so quickly - good one day, gone the next - vs years of being in limbo with this disease. None of our spouses (nor would I) want this long goodbye.
Charlotte, I know you are right. When I read these boards I realize that this could have gone on for years. And, we had talked about it and I knew he didn't want to be in a nursing home, not knowing anyone. I guess since it was so sudden, I have a hard time grasping that this was unavoidable. He told me about 2 months before he died that he felt he would die soon. Of course, I told him that wasn't true, he was in such good physical shape he would live for a long time. We were married 47 years and our 48th anniversary would have been July 18. He passed away on June 27. True love hurts and I know that each of us are hurting so much because we loved so much.
Is there anyone on the board that is going through anti-psychotic drugs not helping but seemingly making it worse? Anyone with the diagnosis of delirium? I just had never head of someone dying of delirium and that is what they diagnosed with his ALZ but his death certificate said delirium.
My sister-in-law had it the last few months of her life that she spent in the psych ward. They could never find a drug to control it until finally her body just gave out from the delirium, the not sleeping, etc. Horrible way to go. So far my husband shows no signs like that. Her disease went 9 years, my husband is slow like his dad's was who went over 20 years.
I wonder sometimes at how they come to the decision as to what to put on a death certificate. Obviously someone who has been ill for a long time with a disease like AZ might have a number of different "causes" that ultimately led to death. I'd not thought that much about it till recently, seems like my dh was getting healthier as his AZ got worse but now this foot thing seems like it might be a continual problem, which could lead to death. He was/is diabetic but got so healthy he is just barely considered diabetic now, but had neuropathy and this foot ulcer is a mess because he couldn't feel it. Already been over a month since I noticed it and I understand it might be another month or more. The Dr told me last week that even if we get this healed he will probably have a recurrence.