My husband is now down 65 lbs. on a 6' frame (below 125) since Nov 2013. For the past 6 months he's been extremely unresponsive, in and out of coma-like states and completely reliant on caregivers for all needs. Due to Medicare's CMS regulations for skilled nursing facilities, they've been dropping his Namenda doses, and starting this past Tuesday, he is no longer on Namenda. The first 2 dosage drops resulted in increased tremors, muscle spasms and hallucinations, which was causing me concern that his life without Namenda would have disastrous results. We aren't sure what will happen, but are hopeful for the best...
Today, the day after his Namenda completely stopped, he was transferred into the memory care unit at his nursing facility, from an acute wing, to the bright, cheerful room in this photo. This move was from a very small room that resembled a large closet on his side, where his roommate wouldn't share the light and the staff left him alone most of the time. New room is a wonderful improvement in atmosphere...hopeful the care will improve and be more empathetic to his end-of-life and his dementia symptoms, which seem to have been discounted on the acute unit.
We'll see...
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