u/xoxo-honey

Hi, all!

I work with individuals with dementia, and I have a resident whose favorite thing in the world is their childhood Quarter Horse that they did barrel racing with.

This individual moved in rather recently, and is having a bit of of anxiety upswing anxiety and restlessness. We have an other strategies in place to help, and they are helping, but I’d like to purchase some materials for them to read, look at, watch, and just generally interact with. They’re the sweetest person, and miss their horse greatly. The way their eyes light up when they talk about him is enough to make me cry.

Do y’all have any recommendations for things I can supply them with? I’d prefer things with clear, vibrant pictures, and not just a bunch of small text. Not necessarily children’s books, because they are an adult, but not visually overwhelming and easier for them to figure out what they’re looking at as the language processing degrades.

Thank you all so much!

EDIT: Thank you all so, so much for the leads and sharing you and your loved ones stories with me. I’m on dog-firework duty and need to put my phone away, so if i don’t get to your comment please know i appreciate the time you took to respond and share your ideas 💛 i’ll have to update yall once we get the stuff in for my dear friend.

Hi, everyone!

I was diagnosed as T1N in February of this year and started treatment in March. We started with Modafinil and maxed it out at 200mg, 2x a day. I can still very easily fall asleep on it, and it was impacting my work and personal life. My doctor added in Sunosi, which i am now at 150mg for.

and i’m still so so sleepy and miserable.

At our last visit when she upped my Sunosi from 75mg to 150mg, she said that if this didn’t work there were alternatives we can explore. I’m assuming she means either oxybates or stimulants but didn’t say anything further and I didn’t ask.

I have previously been on 36mg of Concerta, pre diagnosis, to treat ADHD. We had to keep upping the dose as anything lower I was falling asleep on, but it ended up giving me horrible anxiety. And it still wasn’t enough.

I guess I’m just looking for reassurance from others who have been here that we can and will get this sorted out. I see my psych in early July and my N specialist wants her to evaluate for adding back in a stimulant, which gives me hope.

I’m just so tired of being tired. At least with the Concerta, I wanted to do things after work and could focus on my tasks. Now, my executive functioning has sharply declined and by the time i get home after a standard work day all I want to do is crawl in bed.

I have a high energy job, which i love, on top of it. It requires driving, task switching, and monitoring the safety of others. I can’t be drowsy for this. I love the folks i care for and want to be fully present for them but the past few months i’ve been floating through.

of course, all of this has been communicated to my N specialist and will be with my psych as well. I trust them both to find the right balance/path to go medication wise. I just feel so defeated some days. It’s my day off today and i’ve barely left my bed.