Hi Jackie:  Sorry to hear about your Mom.  Our mother's journies do sound similar.  Her nursing home was also in CT.  (Middletown)  Once my mother got to the nursing home, it took about 2-3 weeks to begin walking (with a walker) and that was with daily physical and occupational therapy in the nursing home (and I think also once she got some muscle back from the nutrition).  I am not aware of whether she had any vision problems.  She claimed not to but of course she had no insight into what was going on.  As I said, she is now just using a cane.

 

So far she has had no side effects from the Exelon and Namenda. We were able to discontinue the clonidine shortly after I moved her to the assisted living facility and the Seroquel, once the Exelon and Namenda kicked in whicgh seemed to eliminate any paranoid type behavior.   I have been very lucky because the apathy that seems to be a part of this also seems to have taken my mother's desire for alcohol away.  Between the hospitalization and then no access, she has not attempted to drink.  When she was asking for drinks in the hospital I learned from a nurse to just go along with it.  Don't bring her any of course but tell her its on the way.  The confabulation that occured in the early stages helped because when she was drinking water from a straw she thought it was a frozen dacquire. 

 

 In assisted living there are different levels of care and when we first moved her in she was checked on 24 hours.  They were aware of the alcohol issues and helped in that area by only serving her soft drinks during "Happy Hour" (yes they a pub area that they open for about an hour a day.)  They also have candlelight dinners where they serve wine.  The first time the aide came over and took my mother's away (the server wasnt' aware).  Her dinner companions were offended and asked my mother why they had done that.  My mom replied, "oh before I came here I was a real drunk!"  When I heard that story I cried because it was the first time my mother had ever admitted to being an alcoholic.  At first when we had dinners at home we didn't drink but now we serve wine and just pour her the same as the kids, sparkling apple cider or soda.    She is monitered but at this point on a limited basis.  There are aides there to help her as needed and they check in on her about twice a day to administer her meds.  I don't know that she could be completely on her own as it wouldn't be safe but at this point she has very limited supervision.  She is as independent as she can be and finally seems to be adjusting. 

 

As you can tell from other's posts, especially Amanda's, not continuing to drink seems to be the key to my mother's improvement.  As we know, the disease is from a thiamine deficiency, not the alcohol per se.  But the alcohol slows the absorption of thiamine and an alcoholic may not be getting much as they are substituting the alcohol for food.

 

I hope this helps.  Good Luck and take care, Kathy