We have just come back from a 3 week trip to visit the grandkids in Chattanooga, TN and St. Louis, Mo.  (We used to go to Calcutta, now we go to Chattanooga!)  It is getting a little more challenging to travel, as when we stop for gas and a restroom, or in a museum, And  if Bob finishes first, he takes off...I wish there were more family style restrooms.  But on the way home I tried going in with him, and then taking him back out to sit in the car while I went to the restroom, and he will stay in the car.
And in one museum, I asked the lady at the desk to let him talk to her (not her talk to him) while  I looked around and she graciously agreed and he talked her ear off.  He loves to talk, and while at our daughter's home in St. Louis, Bob whispered confidentially to our son-in-law that the "big shots" didn't wear underwear.   He said they autographed the underwear and sold it for a big profit...
In this blog, I am going to talk about the changes he is undergoing.  The best video I have ever watched about Alzheimer's explains that as the plaque builds up in different areas of the brain, the symptoms consistent to that area's function are affected.  Now, let me make one thing clear!  I am NOT a psychiatric nurse, but I have great admiration for my friends who are.  Our "psych" rotation was at a 3000 bed state hospital in Maryland and it was enough to almost make me quit nursing.  Bob and I were dating seriously and I called him one evening and told him I was quitting nursing as "I didn't know they did stuff like that to people".  But he was able to talk me out of it--more about that later.  Most of Bob's changes now have to do with sensory perceptions.  And it is weird--the symptoms go in cycles, disappear, and then reappear.  His sense of touch is greater and he will rub a piece of fabric for example and exclaim over how good it feels, but then feel like bugs are crawling all over him.  His sense of taste and smell is different and foods he used to love, he will take one sniff, and decide not to eat it.  He also exhibits the different classifications of psychiatry, which is logical as it is the same brain we are talking about.  There is OCD--obsessive compulsive disorder.  Every spot of water on every sink has to be removed which translates into rolls of paper towels.  There is paranoia--he wears his jacket continually in the house as it contains at least 10 writing pens, and if he doesn't wear it "the other people in the house will steal all my pens."  (There are no other people living in the house).  And he hides things so neither of us can find them! There is schizophrenia--the gentle Bob who NEVER raised his voice at me can have an angry outburst one minute, and then like flipping a switch, he is meek and compliant again.  I once saw a patient in ICU (suicide attempt) whose heart rate on the monitor would change dramatically as she went in and out of her multiple personalities.  Depression--I can't say I see what I would call depression, but at the suggestion of my mental health nurse friends, I asked the doctor to order an antidepressant, and that has seemed to help more than any other thing.  And the antidepressant that I take has also helped immensely, and I am very thankful that after much debate on my part, I started taking it.
Now back to the state mental hospital in Maryland, which ironically was in a town called Sykesville!
I was assigned to the acute care ward, where the burly techs chase the patient, tie them down, and with no sedation, the electric current was applied as the patients screamed for all they were worth.  It is called ECT--electro convulsive therapy--as they go into severe convulsions where you think they will break their back.  I almost vomited and fainted the first time I saw it, and had to leave the room.  BUT it is coming back into vogue, and my nurse friends tell me it helps depression more than anything else.  So, before I retired, I learned they were using it at the hospital where I worked.  They did it at 0500 in the post anesthesia care unit before the surgery day started, and an anesthesiologist was present to provide sedation.  He would provide sedation, then paralyze the patient so not even a finger wiggled, and then the shock was applied, the paralysis was reversed with another medication and the patients woke right up with no side effects (except loss of long term memory).  I was standing there watching, and all the nurse's favorite psychiatrist, Dr. Pol, came up to me and put his arm around me and said "It isn't like it used to be, is it Betty?"  He was also a mindreader!
I tell this story because several people have sent me a link.  It is about on-going trials in Australia where electrical impulses are being applied in small doses to brains of Alzheimer's patients to dissolve the plaque.  It has gone through mice, now they are testing sheep, and it will be ready for human trials in 2017.  It is helping more than any medication that has been tried.  I am a little reticent to get excited however, even if it seems very logical.  Bob's neurologist told us in November that we were basically out of options; that Bob was too far along.  He said their research had developed a medication that with post administration testing last year,  they found it had dissolved the plaque in their patients, but the symptoms didn't disappear (maybe the brain was already too damaged?)  So this year they are trying it on patients just developing the symptoms to see if it helps with earlier administration.
Another thing that has helped is a product from Natural Balance called Happy Sleeper.  It is a mixture of 3 mg. of Melatonin and Valerian root, which potentiates the Melatonin.  It is available at health food stores or I get it from Amazon, which is cheaper.  He takes 2 capsules nightly.  He has never been a good sleeper, but this really seems to help.  And when we cuddle up in bed at night, troubles of the day seem to fade away....
Happy New Year!
Betty