Carolyn, has she been tested for "normal pressure hydrocephalus"? It
causes dementia symptoms, and one common symptom is morning headaches.
NPH frequently goes undiagnosed for an extended period of time.

M.

Book: The 36-Hour Day  
Group: alt.support.alzheimers Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2005, 1:47pm (CDT+1)
From: cgoud800@webtv.net (Carolyn)
by Nancy Mace, M.A. and Peter V. Rabins, M.D., M.P.H. Both either were
or are staff members of the Hohns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The book is published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. I belong to
two on-line Alzheimer support groups, this and another. One of them said
this book was a must read for AD caretakers so I bought it from
Amazon.com.
The library has a copy but since it's a paperback and Amazon had some
good used copies, I got it from there. About $7.50 including postage. In
very good condition. It's been extremely helpful to me in understanding
AD and how to deal with it. I highly recommend it to all but especially
people like me who recently found a LO has AD.

Ronny:
This one I really need to get;but want to be sure I get the most recent
copy that may have more in it. Not sure which one that would be though?

Carolyn:
  My mother is 94. Except for osteoporosis she's in good physical
health. She's already outlived my brother and she might outlive me too.
Her MRI's only show atrophy (shrinkage) of certain parts of the brain
which are consistent with people her age. My daughter says I worry too
much, that something else could take her suddenly before the AD gets
really bad. She wakes up every day with a bad headache. Dr. hasn't found
the cause of that. It goes away after a couple of hours. Nothing the Dr.
has prescribed has helped. The last med prescribed had bad side affects
so now I give her a couple of Extra Strength Tylenol. Works as good as
anything. At least no side effects and she thinks it helps. Dr. put her
on memantine but after 5 days on one 5 mg pill a day she complained of
dizziness and nausea. She lost her appetite. So I stopped the memantine.
Her bones are so fragile that I'm afraid she'll fall and break a hip
when she gets dizzy. She's been on 'dizzy' pills for a few years, even
before the AD diagnosis.   She stopped taking showers after she felt
lightheaded and bumped her head. She bathes from the sink now. We tried
a tub bath but she is dead weight and we both struggled to get her out.

Ronny:
How about using a bath chair for the shower and or bathtub? We got a
bath chair after my Mom got to where she couldn't get in and out of the
tub. First one fit completely in the tub. Next one and a much easier one
is the one we have now which fits partly outside the tub. So whe can sit
on that and then we get her feet and legs in the tub. Very nice,if we
can get Mom to sit down on it in the first place! LoL

Carolyn:
I guess what I'm saying is we're taking it one day at a time and making
adjustments as needed. She is doing fine at home with my help. When
things worsen I'll deal with it then.
Carolyn

Ronny:
Ah,that's the way of it all right. One day at a time and adustments as
needed.