News on my grandmothers condition from my Mom

Hello family & friends,

I'm sorry I haven't written in a long time. I'm so overwhelmed that when I do have a moment to write I'm just brain dead. Pardon any writing errors in advance; it's late at night and I wanted to answere everyone. Mom is not doing well, in the mental sense. Physically she is very fit; as are most Alzheimer's patients, that's why they live so long with this terrible disease.

Mom has taken a few falls and though she has not seriously been injured it does take her a couple days to recover. She is having hallucinations (square head people talking to her) and demonic ones now as well. She looses her purse and/or her cell phone several times a day. I've had a "necklace/pouch-like" thing made for her to hang around her neck but she even hides that from herself. She keeps thinking that someone is playing games on her by hiding her things from her. Or, that the neighbor down the street is coming in and taking it from her. She's wanted to call the police and make a report. She also can not verbalize what she wants to say 90% of the time. It comes out as gibberish. She counts on me to translate for her, which I don't mind when I can, but it's getting difficult even for me to figure it out. All these things distress her even more and they are everyday. She cries and doesn't understand why this is happening to her. She tried to run away again yesterday. I'm sure it's very scary. It gets tough on me b/c I don't have the time she needs to be patient with her with homeschooling the children and their activities. I have found a place that provided Adult daycare. The day that I've choosen for her to attend offeres a Bible study, Arts & Crafts, Lunch and games to help stimulate their minds. We'll be starting that soon.
I took her to the doctor this week and he prescribed a drug for her. He said it wouldn't stop the hallucinations but that it would reduce the anxiety associated with them and hopefully give her coping skills to realize that they're not real. I asked what the side effect were and he basically told me there were none. Well, I hear in the news that afternoon the Seroquel has settled a 520 million law suit against them for promoting a drug for unapproved FDA treatments. Some side effect that I heard were weight and diabetes. On further examination of the drug by me, I learned that the drug has not been approved on Seniors with dementia or Alzheimer's due to sudden death, heart attacks and pneumonia. I call the Dr and asked if he was aware of this. His response, "Those side effects are rare and we have been using these drugs for years. You have to weigh her quality of life verses the chance of something happening to her. There are other drugs but they're all in the same family with the same side effects." So, our call. She is very healthy as I said. I tend to lean to trying the drug b/c I wouldn't want to live this way. I also want to keep her with us as long as possible but she is declining so fast that I'd say a nursing home is within the year.

I know this isn't great news but it's what's going on now. On a positive side, she still seems to know everyone. Please pass this on to anyone I've missed.

Love and Best wishes to all,
Kimberly