Hi friends, I come to you with some unfortunate medical updates on my mom and to ask for your help if you have the ability. Today we got word from her doctor that she has been officially diagnosed with a neurocognitive disorder and early onset dementia. We are now starting a crowdfund to help pay to make my mom a new disability accessible bedroom and bathroom, and to provide her with all of the things she needs to better improve her life moving forward.

Over the past week my mom has been in an inpatient mental health clinic, she was originally sent there because she needed help being re-stabilized on her meds. Before having to go into the hospital she had been accidentally overdosing on many of her medications. With her memory loss she was forgetting she already took her daily meds and accidentally double-dosing, she wouldn’t accept our help so she needed more help than we could give her.

This morning we were informed by her doctor at Backus that she has been officially diagnosed with a neuro-cognitive disorder and early onset dementia. It’s caused by the amount of aneurysms she has had in her lifetime as her first brain surgery was when she was 27, she is 54 now. The team said that the surrounding brain tissue of every aneurysm deteriorates over time and because she has had seven, it caused a lot of damage.

We are being encouraged to put my mom under a conservatorship to help protect her legally and be able to better advocate for her medical care. My grandmother is no longer capable at her age, there’s no other family that knows her entire medical history and can take it on, so I am going to be filing at probate to become my mom’s legal conservator. This is a huge undertaking and a lot of steps need to be taken but we’re working on it, there are many moving pieces.

The staff at her inpatient clinic are working with her towards a discharge date but for now we are left with preparing the house for her return. When she comes home she is going to have a visiting nurse daily, she will be doing outpatient OT/PT, and she is going to be going to a memory care center as well.

We have to do several things to prepare for mom’s return but the most important is getting her bedroom ready. We have already begun the process of emptying what is going to be her new room, it is going to be much more accessible and organized for her. Her current bedroom was a hoarders episode waiting to happen, but we are more than determined to help give her a new lease on life now that we have the chance.

We are currently in the process of putting together her bedroom but there are many things we need, very little time, and only so much money per month. The room she is moving into has a very old carpet that has to be pulled up and we have to get paint for the walls (mom has requested blue). We also have to buy a twin sized mattress, curtains, organizational materials, paint for the dresser, a small tv mount (mom’s request), and I was hoping to get her some posters of her favorite bands to help her recall some good memories. She also said she would like to have a desk to do her puzzle books and read at, which will help her organization as well. There’s also a bunch of small things that I want to get for her memory. She loves reading, she loves word search books and activity books, she loves listening to music, and she even recently expressed wanting a coloring book. I also would really love to put together a photo book of memories for her and to get her a CD player for her music.

As for the bathroom we need to get her a shower chair and a more accessible toilet seat. We also need to address the outside of the house, we’re looking into putting another railing on our front steps to make it easier for mom to walk up and down since she has had a very hard time with them lately but she loves being outside and it’s really good for her to stay active.

I’m going to make an Amazon wish list of things she says she would like and things that we need for her care moving forward. This diagnosis is really scary but I’m hoping that for her it can mean more attentive care and a new perspective on life. We’re hoping to bring some joy back into her life and I’m gonna do whatever I can to provide her with everything she needs and might want.

Right now she is doing okay but definitely wanting to come home. Reid and I visit her everyday. She wants to go to Martha’s Vineyard when she comes home so we’re planning to bring her in August. She said she is looking forward to going to the beach and to her favorite bookstore on the island called Bunch of Grapes.

Thank you all and I will keep you all updated.