Tag: food

A medical mystery because of a missed dementia diagnosis

Dementia gets missed. A lot. It gets missed by family members, friends, and even physicians and people who are “supposed to know” about it.  I’ve met a lot of family members of people with dementia who will say to me, “I know mom has dementia, but her primary care doctor says she’s fine! What do I do? I feel like I’m crazy.” I always assure the family: no, you aren’t crazy, the doctor wasn’t looking for dementia and missed it. I met a family just the other day who had visited a ton of different doctors, all looking for a cure for difficulty eating. After speaking to the client, it became really clear that her thoughts and judgement were confusing and disorganized. Because she was eloquent and well-spoken, the illogical statements that she was actually making were going, for the most part, unnoticed. She stated that she “didn’t want to eat” even though she knew she would die if she didn’t start ingesting some calories.  At the doctor, she was great! Clever, funny, talkative, and educated, so it wasn’t a surprise to me that doctors were looking at her heart, her lungs, her pancreas, her kidneys, and more, almost all of them ignoring her (obvious to me) dementia.  I spent some time looking through her well-organized medical history and found a ton of notes from various hospitals and rehab facilities. Only one of them mentioned that she had “maybe” some “frontotemporal damage” in her brain. There it was. A CT scan had revealed some dementia, but everyone thought that her inability to eat had something to do with her stomach. Really, it probably wasn’t her stomach at all: it was her brain, telling her not to eat.

July 16, 2018

Pureed food doesn’t have to be gross

When people think of a “puree” diet, they typically scrunch up their noses in disgust. “Ugh, mom has to eat that liquefied food?” family members may sometimes ask. Sure, puree can definitely look gross, but it doesn’t have to! We recently ordered (with the awesome help of our Dietary Director) pureed meats that come in shapes. Below you can see a picture of pureed chicken breast, pureed meatloaf, and pureed pork chop. When you put a fork in, the consistency is soft and easy to eat, but the meal looks way more appetizing! It actually tastes pretty good, too–and yes, I tried them. I was able to help my community order more bowls and plates recently, too. We ordered bright red dishes and bowls to encourage our residents to eat more. Red is a vibrant color that creates a clear distinction between the food and the plate. Residents with dementia are better able to see the food in front of them, which encourages them to eat. Notice that the food on the white plate doesn’t stand out very much. Now, picture the same meal on the red plate. Think it would look a little more interesting?

May 29, 2016

5 Things That Will Change The Future of Dementia Care.

I wrote an article a while back called “16 Things That I Would Want If I Got Dementia.” Then I started thinking, how will dementia caregiving change in the future? How will the world change in 10 years? 20 years? While it is tough to predict the future, I know what my day-to-day needs are now—and they will probably affect how someone will have to care for me down the road. 1. When I lose my cell phone, I turn the house upside down to find it. Nowadays, everyone in long-term care is looking for their wallets, keys, and purses. In 10 years or more? Cell phones. We’re going to have to start keeping “burner phones” around dementia communities so that residents can find replacements easily! 2. If we’re friends on Facebook, I see every status you post. Social media is a big part of my life. Even if I have dementia, I am going to want to check up on my media outlets. It is going to be pretty challenging to prevent me from posting confusing things on the Web. 3. I check my email constantly. The residents at my dementia care community don’t currently have access to the Internet—which is mostly a product of their average age. I don’t think that any of them know how to use email. They all get letters in the mail from family and friends. In the future? Hand over that keyboard. 4. My favorite music isn’t everyone else’s favorite music. My current residents with dementia tend to enjoy the same types of music. Any song that was popular in the 1940s is generally welcomed by every single one of them, so it is easy to play those songs in common areas. Today I have Sirius XM Radio in my car. How many hundreds of stations do they offer? Everyone is going to want and expect different music around a long-care community. 5. When I want Chinese food delivered to my house, I order it. My current residents with dementia did not grow up having meals delivered to their homes. In fact, there just weren’t as many food options (especially fast food) available at all. All I know is that somebody better stop me from ordering a pizza at 3 AM if I forget what time of day it is. When you’re caring for someone with dementia, it is easy to get caught up in the seemingly bizarre “behaviors” they have. “Why does mom do that?” you may ask yourself as you search for the drive behind her actions. Sometimes the easiest clue to look at is also the easiest to overlook: that “behavior” could stem from a generational difference.

February 19, 2015

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Rachael wrote "16 Things I'd Want If I Got Dementia" in 2014 and it's circulated the globe many times over. Download your free copy here!

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