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Write a letter (make a copy) or email the doctor prior to your mom's next appointment. Tell him/her that you will be accompanying your mom to the next appointment.
Also, have your mom add you as someone who can discuss her health issues - she will have to sign a form giving her consent. Then you can call and talk to the doctor or staff anytime.
Heck, no! Try to persuade your mother to sign both medical and financial POAs BEFORE her doc determines she is having some degree of cognitive decline.
Location: Los Angeles>Little Rock>Houston>Little Rock
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My husband had a full neuro-psychological evaluation at MD Anderson. It was enlightening, to say the least. It made a big difference in winning his disability claims.
I just realized my prior post is unclear. I'm not stating that it is unacceptable to speak with your mother's physician regarding her cognitive decline. I simply believe it is a bad idea to have the physician record your concerns in your mother's chart before your mother has completed and signed legal documents that require her to be of sound mind.
I just realized my prior post is unclear. I'm not stating that it is unacceptable to speak with your mother's physician regarding her cognitive decline. I simply believe it is a bad idea to have the physician record your concerns in your mother's chart before your mother has completed and signed legal documents that require her to be of sound mind.
Thanks for all the replies and the input. She had an appointment with her cardiologist yesterday, she said the memory issues could be due to the sleep apnea she was just diagnosed with but did refer my mother to a neurologist, which she will see in April. The trip to the neurologist is more for me than for her, I struggle with the thoughts that there really is no memory loss, it is just an attempt at attention. She and my father really cut themselves off from others after his retirement and pretty much became each others world, so for 12 years she was the most important person in someones life and now that he is gone, she wants that from someone else. I love her but I have a husband and children that are the center of my world, as they should be, her and my relationship was never a healthy mother/daughter relationship, so I struggle with that as well. I have encouraged her to get out and meet others, we have a very large senior community with plenty of opportunties to interact with others closer to her age and in the same situation as she finds herself in. It has been like pulling teeth to get her out of the house, plenty of "as soon as this health issue gets settled" excuses. She does go to the senior center usually 5 days a week for the entire morning but outside that she just wants to stay in her room. Hopefully in the next couple of months we will get some definitive anwers. Even though I really don't do much hands on caregiving with her because she is still able to do everything for herself and I struggle with calling myself her caregiver, it is a really hard thing to do.
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