Alcoholism Support Group
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Hi. My mom is 70. Gets around great and is strong. She has had many operations in her life. She had 3 in the last 10 months. Lung cancer to remove a lobe, cyst on spine, and redo on same cyst 3 weeks later. She takes pain meds celebrex, oxycotin. Ambien to sleep and anti depression meds. She drinks daily, usually Gin. Last Wednesday I got a call from her, and it sounded very strange. I told her I was talking to her, but she thought she was talking to the answering machine. Told me to vote for my dad, but he isn't running for anything. They are retired. Took her to ER, did ct scan and said all was fine. Sent her home. She continued getting worse. Took her to neuro Dr. Mon. and he stopped all the meds except her heart bloodpressure pills. Sent her home. Took her to family Dr. and he put her back on celebrex because of all her operations. No alcohol or ambien. She is still getting worse. Took her to ER again and they said she has Wernicke Korsakoff. Looked it up and looks like alcohol kept her from getting B1 thiamine to her brain.
1st day was weird phone call Wed.
2- 3 day was loss of muscle control. Had to get a wheelchair.
4-5 day takes off clothes and goes outside to say hi to neighbors. Speech makes no sense, but they are words. Talking to her dead dad, thinks she was a teacher for 100 yrs. laughs a lot. Have to tell her to open her eyes. She can walk.
6th day Sudden energy. Sleeping 2 hrs. Super strong, doing things she couldn't do for decades due to surgery on her neck. No wheelchair needed. Now she is violent. Tried choking me, kicking, and screaming that we are keeping her from going out. She has to be at her friends in 7 minutes. Everything is 7 minutes now.
7 day. ER admitted. They observe, put 24 hr nurse in room. She is full of energy. Yelling, laughing, judging everybody she sees on looks weight height etc. She is on IV bag with thiamine.
8 day. Dr says it is wernicke korsakoff. They are trying to get her into a psyc hospital under the Butler Act in Fl. 72 hr observation with nobody allowed to see her.
My dad wants to be able to see her and that they are taking care of her.
Does anyone know of a support group online for this? Anybody have similar experience with this? Anybody know if you can become violent? It is real hard to find support for this online. Lung cancer was a breeze, but I am having one hell of a time finding anything. All the Dr's seem to be just as confused. She has a sister that has schizophrenia but she never did. Dr's say we missed the signs because she had so many operations and was on pain pills plus alcohol. I am not sure they are right on the Wernicke Korsakoff. She has some of the symptoms, but she has others. (cursing, violence, taking her clothes off. She is acting like a 5 year old.) I look forward to hearing if anyone knows anything about this terrible disease! Everything I find says to join a alcoholics support group.
Thank you for reading my cry for help.
1st day was weird phone call Wed.
2- 3 day was loss of muscle control. Had to get a wheelchair.
4-5 day takes off clothes and goes outside to say hi to neighbors. Speech makes no sense, but they are words. Talking to her dead dad, thinks she was a teacher for 100 yrs. laughs a lot. Have to tell her to open her eyes. She can walk.
6th day Sudden energy. Sleeping 2 hrs. Super strong, doing things she couldn't do for decades due to surgery on her neck. No wheelchair needed. Now she is violent. Tried choking me, kicking, and screaming that we are keeping her from going out. She has to be at her friends in 7 minutes. Everything is 7 minutes now.
7 day. ER admitted. They observe, put 24 hr nurse in room. She is full of energy. Yelling, laughing, judging everybody she sees on looks weight height etc. She is on IV bag with thiamine.
8 day. Dr says it is wernicke korsakoff. They are trying to get her into a psyc hospital under the Butler Act in Fl. 72 hr observation with nobody allowed to see her.
My dad wants to be able to see her and that they are taking care of her.
Does anyone know of a support group online for this? Anybody have similar experience with this? Anybody know if you can become violent? It is real hard to find support for this online. Lung cancer was a breeze, but I am having one hell of a time finding anything. All the Dr's seem to be just as confused. She has a sister that has schizophrenia but she never did. Dr's say we missed the signs because she had so many operations and was on pain pills plus alcohol. I am not sure they are right on the Wernicke Korsakoff. She has some of the symptoms, but she has others. (cursing, violence, taking her clothes off. She is acting like a 5 year old.) I look forward to hearing if anyone knows anything about this terrible disease! Everything I find says to join a alcoholics support group.
Thank you for reading my cry for help.
hugs bill
Sorry to hear about your moms troubles. I had never heard about Wernickie-Korsakoff Syndrome but from doing a quick Google search, it seems to be quite common among alcohol abusers.
I have absolutely no knowledge about this but from the little bit that I have just read, there seems to be some treatments that can help with some of the symptoms, at least for a percentage of sufferers. The link below is quite informative:
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Wernicke-Korsakoff-Syndrome.htm
As you have stated there seems to be a lack of support groups for this condition. Why not start one of your own on Daily Strength by clicking on Groups and Start a Group. The response would probably be slow at the beginning but by posting messages and making people aware of the group, I am sure that it could grow in numbers and be a help to many people.
Korsakoff's psychosis, also known as wet brain, is irreversible brain damage. Nemo's right. If your mother has progressed to Korsokoff's (the symptoms you describe suggest that) then she needs supervision around the clock. She will lose both short and long term memory. Antipsychotic medication will not cause improvement because the brain damage is irreversible. Violence shouldn't be an issue (at least, not in my experience) because walking is a problem. Falls happen frequently.
I'm so sorry about your mom. Check your local hospital to see if they have support groups that you might join to talk to others in your shoes. Best Wishes.
Update: She is still in the hospital. They said it could take up to 5 days to get transferred to a psyc hospital. She doesn't like the 24 hr nurse staring at her all day, but she is handling it. They had to strap her down at 5 am. Took straps off at 7am. She knows who we are. Remembered my sister had earrings on yesterday. Knew my sister's husband was flying down today. She has not been violent today. She keeps ripping her IV out, so they are giving her thiamine orally. She said she saw my husband and other sister's husband on TV with my daughter. They were in a parade and my husband was skinny. (He is not.) At 10 am she thinks she is on a show. Keeps asking if we will be there at 5. Asked nurse and she said she doesn't get off until 6. Now my mom thinks the show starts at 9pm. She is taking notes for it. The nurse gave her a pen and paper, but she isn't writing anything although it looks like she is. She is always asking for a drink and pain pills. Told her she can't have any, and she said to get her over the counter ones like Tylenol.
They have done 2 CT scans. They want to do a MRI (had one scheduled for last Wed., but she wouldn't stay still. They said she can't be put under for it. They need to see how her brain is working. With the lung cancer diagnosis in March, we were thinking that maybe it mets to her brain.
We are hanging in there hoping she is the 20% if this is WKS. Luckily medicare is going to cover it. They said that when she does get transferred to the psych hospital, it will be by ambulance with a police escort. Nurses- do you think her memory is going to get worse if it is WKS? She remembers my wedding, hers, and my sisters. She knows who we all are including her 8 grandchildren. She is just so confabulated. They did put her back on ambien. Those side effects sound terrible too. We stopped her cold turkey per her Dr. 5 days ago. Once we get this all figured out, I think I will start a new group for WKS.
Thanks again.
If it's Korsakoff's psychosis then I would ask "what memory". That means that the brain damage is irreversible so I would have to say no in that event. The memory won't be the only function to go. My prayers to you.
It's also not a stretch that the lung cancer could have metasticized to the brain and that's what's causing problems, including any violence. I know this because my dad had the very same thing happen. The side of his brain that was effected caused him to say things out loud that he would normally only think! But one thing I haven't heard you mention. My dad had grand mal seizures and would have great difficulty pronouncing words. It was like he knew what he was thinking but couldn't spit it out. Best of luck to you. Let us know how it goes after his doctor's visit.
1st visit to ER. Dr says everything looks good. CT scan.
2nd visit Neuro. He writes down dementia/amnesia
3rd visit Internal Med Dr. He says Wernicke syndrome. 2 months to recover. Tells us to get in home health care.
4th visit ER . Health care Dr says Wernicke Korsakoff after watching her for 11 hrs. Starts Baker Act and tells us she will be taken to psych hospital as soon as they can find a open bed. Can be anywhere in the state. 72 hrs at psch hospital for evaluation. Can't do MRI because she wont stay still.
This all happened in 1 week.
Dr. said that they would see some tumor on the brain from CT scan, but it is clear.
You answered my question about memory, but she has a lot of them. Remembers her dad like it is current time. He died when she was 7. She has some lucid moments, but only for a few seconds. She will suddenly say "Wow, I did this to myself. I hurt my brain. Or I really messed this up." Then she goes off to some off beat thing like we are going to live on Mars because we destroyed Earth. I think she is picking some things up from TV like all the commercials for John Carter. A movie where they move to Mars by Disney.
Maybe it is Wernicke and not the Korsakoff. They are having to stick with the current WKS diagnosis to get her into the system.
Thank you