Mom had a neurology appt today for a 6 month follow-up from her original Dementia diagnosis as well as related to pain management for facial pain condition.
Super annoyingly, I arranged a Liftline for her, took the afternoon off work, and coached her through getting ready for the appointment. When I was on my way, I got a call from the office saying my mom was asking if I could give her a ride home. Turns out the Liftline dropped her early, and the office offered her an earlier appointment because there had been a cancellation. My mom didn’t remember I was coming despite that we had discussed it several times. So even though I was 30 mins early for her appt, I missed it! So frustrating- I may have screamed in the car.
But I read over the notes, and my mom’s score surprisingly went up on the mental status exam from 23/30 to 25/30. I wish I could have been there to discuss recent shifts in her progression like the word salad and day/night confusion and hallucination, but the plan from the neurologist is just to continue forth and come back in a year.
The lack of any real testing or care planning is sort of astounding. That they would just treat a patient with dementia without even trying to involve a caregiver is wild to me, especially since they know me and that I care for her.
On the plus side, we had a nice lunch while we waited for Liftline to take mom home. On the downside, I was pretty frustrated and angry the rest of the day and was short fused with everyone, which always feels awful.
Next time, I will know to call ahead and make sure they don’t start any appointments without me. Lesson learned.
Sandwiched 