Mom is on a cocktail of drugs for a variety of symptoms: Aricept, supposedly to help her short-term memory issues; and now Namenda, which is supposed to slow her decline in thinking and behavior, whatever that means.
The docs didn't give her SSRI's (serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), which are commonly prescribe for FLD, because they don't think her disease is related to depression, or that she shows depression symptoms. I'm not sure if I disagree, because her decline seems to follow a progression since the death of my grandmother; at first, she grieved. Then she was at loose ends as to what to do with all her spare time, as my grandmother demanded her every spare second.
Then she was busy establishing her vacation home with my Dad. Once that was finished, and quiet reigned...that's when all of this started. As if the silence opened a door.
I suppose the drugs are working; she has fewer inappropriate verbal outbreaks. But at the same time, they seem to have rendered her catatonic. I used to be able to get some kind of response from her -- maybe with some coaxing, but I could get a response, or a laugh. Now she responds mainly to the kids and to our cats, often with a very strange, hoarse laugh I don't recognize.
When I dropped an open container of salt on the kitchen floor last week, with predictable results, she didn't respond at all to my scream and loud wail of despair. Before, she would have laughed. "You idiot!" and then come over to help. Now, nothing. I do think she was amused, somewhere inside, but she didn't show it. Even when I threw a pinch over my left shoulder for good measure.
Same thing when the kids and I spied a big bug in the bathroom, and exited en masse, screaming like the Devil was nipping at our hindquarters. No verbal response. But I think she chuckled internally. Maybe I'm making it up, projecting my own memories on to this shell of a person. But I don't think so. Not yet.
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