Originally Posted by
catherine
I agree with Simplemind and Jane. My mother experienced a burst brain aneurysm followed by a stroke. Unfortunately I was only 25 at the time, and her "loving" 3rd husband disappeared after these events happened, because he quickly saw there was nothing for him in the relationship. And I was clueless and exhausted after just having had my first baby.
When my uncle and I had to make the very serious decision as to whether or not to liquidate her condominium (she had some severe cognitive issues subsequent to the stroke--basically she didn't know what planet she was on), I called her neurosurgeon to get an idea of the prognosis.
Her 5-word "consultation" was "They usually stay that way." No explanation, elaboration, compassion. So we got rid of her condominium and her stuff. Long story short, thanks to the astute observations of one of her best friends, after 18 months in a nursing home at age 50, we had my mother re-evaluated and on the basis of that, the doctor who evaluated her recommended that the nursing home stop many of her meds.
It was like the Robert DeNiro/Robin Williams movie Awakeninings. She literally "woke up" after a few days... started asking me about her belongings, my kids, my siblings. While she never was able to live on her own again, my mom was definitely returned to me. If we hadn't pushed for the re-evaluation, she would have spent 20 years in la-la land because after all, her doctor--a medical professional--told me that "they usually stay that way."