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I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
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Mom has been on Namenda for about 2 months, she seems much more confused and is easily agitated. She has been on Aricept with no negative effect. Since the Namenda she's been declining almost daily.
I don't give my husband any drugs for his dementia; just letting nature take its course. I am not flushing our money down the toilet, otherwise known as paying for drugs that have unpleasant or serious side effects.
Sorry to say that Aricept and Namenda seem to make the dementia worse and the drug companies rich. Don't believe it even slows anything down. Mom was on Aricept and never got to Namenda. We dropped Aricept without change in her behavior. Like of these drugs the drug companies give a bonus to the doctors for subscribing them.
Namenda was no good for 83 year old MCI husband. He was on 10 M of Aricept and that seemed to work. When they added Namenda, his gait, walking and balance were negatively affected almost immediately. Didn't stick around to see what else would be affected. Physician took him off this Medication immediately.
Absolutely! My mother was on 20-30 mg a day...depending on who filled her medicine pack for the week. My good ol sil would put 1 10 mg in the morning, one after lunch and another 10 mg after dinner. I cannot tell you , not only how confused and agitated it made mom. But it affected her gait, walking, her ablity or lack thereof, to eat a bowl of cereal...let alone a bowl of soup from the constant tremors she was having. Got her away from said sil, took her to the UP in Michigan, called her Dr. and told her I was weaning her off it altogether. She was fine with it. Afetr 3 weeks....she's BACK!!! She's 86 by the way...I don't believe anyone over the age of 75-80 should be on anything as horrible as Namenda. Of all the side effects...she had about 80% of them. She is now thinking more clearl than she has in years, and has finally decided to get away from the witch and is now in assisted living facility in Mackinac City close to my sister and brother. My sister, who is special( challenged) is living with her as well and they couldn't be happier!! We thank God for helping her to make that decision, so very blessed...and just to see the glow in both of their eyes and laugh again...such a beautiful thing their life is now!!!! Night and day...God bless you and good luck!! :)
To lindabf You wrote something that struck a nerve!!!you mentioned "depth perception". I have been very concerned over the fact that my husband won't make an attempt to walk around the dog or even the door frame. Is perception part of FTD and/or Parkinson's? Puglover2
I take my husband to the University of Arkansas Medical Geriatric Center. And there he sees a geriatric psychiatrist. She took him off Namenda about nine months ago because she said the research did not support it's value. I do believe he feels better and is even less confused.
This is very scary, as my mom just started Namenda last week, per her neurologist. She is also on the Exelon patch, but not Aricept. I will let my dad and sister, who live much closer, to keep a close eye on her.
My dad's been on Zoxadon and Alzam. His decline is visible physically and he can hardly move with limbs very stiff. He suddenly started shaking a lot too. Very hard to see him like this. We haven't tried Namenda or Aricept. His doctor hasn't mentioned it. All the best.
My mom spent a 'lovely weekend at the beach with a friend' to realize on Monday morning that it was me, her daughter... But actually I think the Namenda XR is helping her. She is at peace and enjoying life, (even if she doesn't always remember who she's with, that's ok. Without it, she becomes angry and volatile. It's keeping her home longer and out of nursing care. She's on the 28 mg along with Excelon patch.
Same thing happened with my husband. I took him off the Namenda for a week, and he improved. Then I put him back on it, and within the week, again, he became more confused. So I took it away from him forever! We need to remember that all these medications the pharmaceutical fat cats keep pushing on us are always to be questioned.
I urge you to read "The Myth of Alzheimer's" by an American neurologist (his name escapes me now, but you can google the title of the book). In "the good old days," it was called "hardening of the arteries." Then along came a German doctor who slapped a label to it. His name was Dr. Alzheimer. The "cure," which will never come to be is a huge money-making venture for the pharmaceuticals and the doctors who are in bed with them.
Of course more and more of the elderly have Alzheimer's ("hardening of the arteries"). We are all living much, much longer so "hardening of the arteries" is on the "increase."
I hope you will read this book. And if you are already contributing your hard-earned dollars to the pharmaceutical industry to find a "cure" for Alzheimer's, take a deep breath and stop doing it.
The only negative thing that happened when my mother was on Namenda and I don’t know if she was on the XR you speak of, but it gave her low blood pressure, as is a side effect of it, and she fell twice. We took her off of it and it seems like her real cognitive impairment is really that she is always having uti’s. Because when she takes the antibiotic for it, she has absolutely NO COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT, until UTI starts up again. So I believe my mother is really misdiagnosed with dementia anyway.
Quailmom....that's exactly why I chose not to put my Mom on anything further after the Aricept stopped working. Being aware of those losses has caused my mom a lot of anxiety and sadness and that, in turn, has reduced the quality of her life. I'd rather see her severely decline quickly into a state that she is unaware of those losses than to stay longer in the anxiety & tears that her loss awareness has caused.
My husband was very confused when we got his dose up to 10 mg twice a day. The Doctor thinks it helps support cognition and really wanted to keep him on the drug [I wanted to quit]. We are now doing 5 mg. twice per day. It seems to me that it makes the poor guy more aware of his losses but no more capable in daily functioning. At least the generic is much cheaper and it doesn't seem to cause any physical issues. I am still very skeptical of it's efficacy in this case.
For us it was dosage. 10 mg twice a day was disastrous. 10 mg once a day was still not good. 5 mg. once a day with the evening meal has worked well. No agitation or hallucinations. Sleeping through the nightwithout calling out for help. Good! That said, confusion, memory loss, and depth perception challenges are ongoing, but manageable when the agitation and hallucinations are removed from the picture. Ask your doctor about trying lower doses rather than higher if you have not tried that yet.
My husband had hallucinations when on Namenda - saw strangers in the corner or cats on the book shelves. This made him quite agitated so I took him off the medication.
Oops, I wasn't finished posting...as for the Aricept it affected his intestinal track. The doctor took him off both medications. My husband has FTD and Parkinson's. He is currently using Excelon patches which has shown slowed down confusion. Senimet was prescribed in addition to the patch which turned out to be a nightmare. He slept all day and night. Due to the inability to ambulate he contacted pneumonia and was hospitalized. Sometimes, no medication is best in our situation. I wish you the best! ~Puglover 2~
I've heard so many negative experiences that, once my mom got to the point that the Aricept was no longer working on its own, I made the decision to remove her from the now-useless Aricept without even trying the Namenda. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's is as terminal an illness as cancer. Even if the afflicted person has no other deadly medical issues, the degeneration of the brain *will* eventually kill them. I watched how distressed my mother is/was during those moments when she realizes she's not quite "right", but doesn't know what "right" is. I've lived through her soul-crushing anxiety & the genuine tears she has shed for either a life that never really existed (only in her head) or for friends, neighbors & family who my "real" mom knew had passed but this "new" mom thinks are still alive. I do what I can to keep her physically comfortable & cared for & I give whatever meds that I can to reduce her symptoms (anxiety, tearfulness, etc), but I refuse to give meds like Aricept & Namenda that CANNOT cure the dementia but CAN prolong the amount of time that she is suffering. Totally my opinion & I'm sure there are others here who would disagree. My philosophy, though, is that quality of her life needs to take precedence over the quantity of her life.
Hi tallpetsitter; My one thought would be that everyone seems to react differently to these meds. We put my mom on Aricept (early stages of dementia) and she was more confused, worse gait/balance, fell, to the ER, found her sodium to be 118 (normal 135-145) and she spent several weeks in rehab. My point, you know her better than anyone. Can you get her in to see her MD? Could it be a UTI? Those things always seem to set our seniors into a tailspin. What about her sodium level or other metabolic issues? It is like being a medical detective. Good luck and God bless. ntsujimura
Absolutely. My mom only took 1 month and we noticed her decline. As well she is taking Aricept and the memory clinic thought she is now ready to go tandem. She started out with the 7, 14, 21 and finally 28mg dose and that's when all hell broke loose. Mom became more withdrawn, less engaging, balance became progressively worse and her incontinence was out of control. She no longer had the "feeling" to go. We have since taken her off and I am glad to say she is back to her "Normal." Good luck.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
You wrote something that struck a nerve!!!you mentioned "depth perception". I have been very concerned over the fact that my husband won't make an attempt to walk around the dog or even the door frame. Is perception part of FTD and/or Parkinson's?
Puglover2
I urge you to read "The Myth of Alzheimer's" by an American neurologist (his name escapes me now, but you can google the title of the book). In "the good old days," it was called "hardening of the arteries." Then along came a German doctor who slapped a label to it. His name was Dr. Alzheimer. The "cure," which will never come to be is a huge money-making venture for the pharmaceuticals and the doctors who are in bed with them.
Of course more and more of the elderly have Alzheimer's ("hardening of the arteries"). We are all living much, much longer so "hardening of the arteries" is on the "increase."
I hope you will read this book. And if you are already contributing your hard-earned dollars to the pharmaceutical industry to find a "cure" for Alzheimer's, take a deep breath and stop doing it.
My husband has FTD and Parkinson's. He is currently using Excelon patches which has shown slowed down confusion. Senimet was prescribed in addition to the patch which turned out to be a nightmare. He slept all day and night. Due to the inability to ambulate he contacted pneumonia and was hospitalized. Sometimes, no medication is best in our situation. I wish you the best! ~Puglover 2~
My one thought would be that everyone seems to react differently to these meds. We put my mom on Aricept (early stages of dementia) and she was more confused, worse gait/balance, fell, to the ER, found her sodium to be 118 (normal 135-145) and she spent several weeks in rehab. My point, you know her better than anyone. Can you get her in to see her MD? Could it be a UTI? Those things always seem to set our seniors into a tailspin. What about her sodium level or other metabolic issues? It is like being a medical detective. Good luck and God bless. ntsujimura