My mom has complained of "balance problems" for the last few years. She attributes it to the lamictal she has to take to prevent seizures, but I'm wondering if this could be related to the dementia? There are days she has a hard time walking and will say "my balance is really bad today".... would a med side effect vary day to day?
Her old neurologist tried her on other seizure meds, nothing improved as far as the balance problem. She did a lot better mood-wise on the lamictal so she ended up back on lamictal.
Just really hoping these balance problems don't progress, so I want to understand what is causing it. If it is the med, then it shouldn't progress, right?
It's either coming from the lamictal, or is stroke/dementia related. Three more weeks until her first neurology appointment in our area. I have so many questions written down. This is one of them.
Vestibular system tends to be the one that fades noticeably. Unfortunately, the way people compensate is by looking down to see where they are going. This takes away visual as well since you really want to have your head up and looking at the horizon for that to work right. Then you lose your balance and fall.
There are exercises to retrain the brain to deal with a compromised vestibular system. One way is to rig someone up on a special treadmill and trip them. They learn rather quickly how not to fall. A gentler way is to teach them to look up when they walk to get visual cues. But that takes longer.
A spinal tap led to a diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrodephalus.
A shunt was installed but didn’t make much of a difference.
But...my friend’s dad who didn’t have Alzheimer’s had the same diagnosis and procedure and the results were terrific!
I recently discovered that if I become dehydrated, I stumble and my balance is off. It's really easy to become dehydrated.
I'm 67 and I have trouble drinking my 8x8oz cups of water daily = 1/2 gallon. Since I am average and typical, dehydration is a big problem today.
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