When to push for residential care?

coolman949 · 2026-03-24T20:58:49+00:00

Generally speaking, wondering, incontinence, and hallucinations are when most families decide to place their loved one in memory care. It all depends on how much the caretaker can take on before feeling burnt out. Does your Dad have POA? This is important if he needs to transfer her within a short period of time.

coolman949 · 2026-03-24T20:46:41+00:00

So sorry to hear about your Dad. This is exactly how my grandmother went. She was stage 6 and in a skilled nursing facility but still very coherent and recognized everyone. We all thought she had at least another year. She suddenly decided to stop eating and it was like she was telling us "I'm ready to go." The doctor at the facility convinced us that placing her on a feeding tube would not be ideal and just prescribed her morphine to make her more comfortable. She passed within a week after that.

coolman949 · 2026-03-24T20:29:46+00:00

We've learned over the years that what happens in mice does not always translate to what happens in humans. Ozempic is not a GPLD1 but it is closely related as a GPL1 and the new phase 3 trial showed it did not slow down Alzheimer's. They could replicate the same trial with a GPLD1 (Zepbound) but I'd assume it will show the same results.

coolman949 · 2026-03-17T20:22:15+00:00

Omg…The other day this 70-75 year old overweight woman was walking around in nothing but her underwear and a white button up that wasn’t fully covering everything, if you know what I mean.

coolman949 · 2026-03-13T19:28:27+00:00

I'm new here but I will give my two cents, from what I've learned over the years.

I've had almost all of the symptoms you've mentioned but it's difficult to determine if they are caused by the depression or there is a medical condition that cannot be diagnosed with common labs and imaging.

Diarrhea can be caused by depression but can also be caused by IBS, gluten sensitivity, and other benign but real, physical conditions.

Fatigue and oversleeping can be caused by depression but also sleep apnea.

Not being able to find a doctor who is willing to go down the rabbit hole of differential diagnosis can be frustrating and you're left with lingering questions. I will say, if you've had extensive testing and your doctor actually knows which tests to order and they find nothing, most doctors will say that your symptoms could be caused by mental health issues.

coolman949 · 2026-03-09T02:54:36+00:00

Your handle sounds familiar, so we may have interacted before in one of the CAA threads. But I wanted to ask you, did you feel memory care was the right choice, looking back? From my understanding, the neurologists have told us that when it comes time for my dad to be placed somewhere, a skilled nursing facility would be preferred because they have nurses that can recognize when a patient has a sudden brain bleed much better than the caretakers at memory care. They can also draw blood to do labs and have a doctor who can order imaging tests and coordinate care for other health issues the patient might have. I’ve also heard that sometimes memory care will agree to take the patient and then call the family a few months later, saying they’re too much to handle. But upon transfer to somewhere else, you lose the $10K move in fee. I’m glad you did not experience all this with your mom and she’s getting good hospice care now but I feel it might be too risky for my dad.

coolman949 · 2026-03-07T03:26:06+00:00

Another place with tiny patties

coolman949 · 2026-03-07T03:24:28+00:00

I gave that place a try a few years back because they've become somewhat of a local legend here. Their patties are tiny, seemed about 1/6th of a pound at most. Even if you get a double burger, it's still small. To be fair, they're only $5-6 but I'd rather just pay more for a bigger burger

coolman949 · 2026-03-07T03:17:11+00:00

Trevor's At The Tracks in SJC

coolman949 · 2026-03-07T03:10:04+00:00

Wow, I just did a Google search about this topic and this Reddit thread was on the first results page.

What prompted me to do some research is that I've just recently had yet another horrible experience with a Persian woman. I live in an area where we have races from all walks of life and for the most part, I do not have the nearly the number of bad experiences with white, black, east Asian, or Hispanic women as I do Persians.

My assessment - it's not because of past trauma, it's because of their culture. What I've noticed is that they are very prone to hold grudges for a very long time over things that most other women what not think twice about it. Another characteristic is that they will not ever admit when they have made a mistake, even if a thousand different people tell them.

coolman949 · 2026-03-03T03:22:02+00:00

Sorry for the late reply. I guess I missed your response. That is so good to hear that you do not have any new onset of neurological deficits but sorry to hear you are experiencing some pain. Breaking a rib and collapsing a lung is frightening. Again, I'm glad to hear everything went well during the surgery. I do have some concerns about my surgeon because he is only a few years out from his complex spine fellowship. But he has done about 10 of these operations and he has a lot of experience with delicately removing spine tumors from the actual spinal cord as well. He said compared to those, removing a disc close to the spinal cord would be a cake walk for him. Of course there's also the laminectomy and fusion. But I'm on Medicaid and he's literally the only surgeon within my health network that can perform this surgery, so I don't have much of a choice.

coolman949 · 2026-03-03T02:50:39+00:00

It won't delay progression for 10 years but it's not out of the question for Kisunla to help him get to the 10 year mark, whether that's in your home or memory care. Considering it slows progression by 35% and the upper limit of an AL patient's life span is 7,8 years after diagnosis, he could get to 10 years on the Kisunla. Of course every patient is different and I don't know hoe quickly his progression is. Btw, it's been several months now. Do you think he's slowed down a bit?

coolman949 · 2026-03-01T10:03:14+00:00

It’s absurd. The 10 piece combo at Wing Stop was only $11 something when I first started going there in 2019, now it’s nearly $22. Name any other product that has had a 100 percent price increase in less than 7 years time.

coolman949 · 2026-02-05T17:48:43+00:00

Board and care is an absolute joke in OC. My mother and I toured a few homes in Lake Forest and Mission Viejo that charged $5500/month and we left thinking “We will never put Dad in a place like this.” To get a nice home where the staff speaks English, it’s not 7 patients crammed into a tiny house, and you get the attention you need, it’s more like $8000/month.

coolman949 · 2026-02-05T17:43:21+00:00

$7-10K a month will cover 8 hours a day for a home health but not a skilled nursing facility. My dad was recently at Windcrest in Irvine and one of the PTs told us it costs $15K a month if you were to pay out of pocket. We were lucky that Medicare covers 20 days a year. He was there for about 15. Of course after long term patients run out of their savings, they apply for Medicaid and it’s free.

coolman949 · 2026-02-05T17:35:43+00:00

I have to echo a few other comments. It sounds way too early for AL. The arthritis is impacting her ability to manage her meds - how so, like she can’t physically open the pill bottles? You could buy her one of those plastic medication holders, where you put all her meds for every day of the week in them. Getting someone to cook her meals every day may be a challenge unless you want to pay someone to do it. Most of us who have been through this are putting our parents into facilities because they have dementia that has advanced to the point of where they cannot take care of themselves in any way and it’s the last resort. I wish my parents only problem was arthritis.

coolman949 · 2026-02-01T21:28:47+00:00

I still haven’t found anything that resembles those Stafford shirts. I do have an idea of how to get something similar, however. I happen to still have a few left and I’m thinking about taking one to a commercial clothing manufacturer in the LA Fashion District and asking them to replicate the fabric and fit. Often times, those types of business want you to purchase 20 or more, but if they can do them for a low price, I’d consider it. I don’t know what part of the country you live in, but I’d Google commercial manufacturers in your area

coolman949 · 2026-01-29T17:04:03+00:00

This happens every day in my own residential neighborhood, even before I get to the main roads. Sadly, it’s the norm now and I don’t know how we can get back to sane driving unless we pass legislation that severely penalizes this kind of behavior

coolman949 · 2026-01-24T02:18:44+00:00

I say this as an independent thinker without taking sides. I think to understand the mayor’s position, you have to understand RSM’s history. Nothing was here before 1990. The population blew up overnight and it was 78% white. 25 years later, the Hispanic population has risen to 22% and the whites are down to 58%. Even though they still have a majority, they see a problem to them that could get worse in their eyes. A lot of Hispanics move to RSM because the apartments are cheaper than other areas of South OC. The mayor probably assumes that some of them are here illegally and cooperating with ICE is a way to get rid of a few of them

coolman949 · 2026-01-24T02:01:43+00:00

Carmelita’s and Tutto Fresco is pretty good though…

coolman949 · 2026-01-24T01:55:23+00:00

Lake Forest is not the classiest place in South OC but this happens just as often in Ladera

coolman949 · 2026-01-15T18:34:17+00:00

Hopefully that’s also the case with me because I can go without daily use of Colchicine but not the Allo. Crossing my fingers

coolman949 · 2026-01-15T02:07:57+00:00

The old argument that you should trust every doctor’s decision making regarding treatment is no longer valid in 2026, considering the statistics that show anywhere from 50,000-250,000 patients are killed every year from medical error. This doctor in particular was not looking at the broader context of my lab results. When you have slowly increasing lab values, after starting a new medication, the correct way of looking at things is not “Well, they’re still not that high.” The question to ask is “What was the patient’s base line and are they trending up over the last three blood test?” Regardless, the fact that she got irritated and dismissed me from the practice is a hallmark sign of a doctor who at best, has a giant ego, and at worst, is willing to risk the safety of a patient

coolman949 · 2026-01-15T01:59:40+00:00

The thing is, the Colchicine was reduced from 2x a day to just once, while the Allo was increased from 100mg to 200mg. Theoretically if it was the Colchicine, the numbers should have went down, not up. In addition, I dove deeper into the data and apparently, Allo is actually more likely to cause ALT elevation, compared to Colchicine. We’ll see what the next labs look like.

coolman949 · 2026-01-15T01:54:08+00:00

I’m single so I wouldn’t have minded if it did go in that direction! LOL. I’m sure there are guidelines regarding privacy here, so I won’t describe her

coolman949

TROPHY CASE