My long time friend has suffered from depression for a long time, years, and been treated for it on and off and I'm sure has self-medicated from time to time as we do sometimes when it's needed.  She had what is thought to have been a TIA a couple of months ago and was hospitalized for five days.  Just prior to the event, she was apparently not always making much sense at a birthday party she attended, but she seemed to have a good time.  No one thought much of it.  After she was released from the hospital, she had some short term, long term, medium term memory problems and appeared to be kind of shaky on her feet from time to time.  She has also been experiencing a resurgence of hot flashes, which she has not had for years.  Her speech seemed a little slurry to me, but her bridgework doesn't fit the best and she has trouble talking around it.  Besides, she has always had a little bit of speech impediment, so it's really hard to tell when she is having trouble.

Last week she was on her way over to my house for dinner and she crashed her car after becoming confused about where she was and where she was going.  She turned into a familiar grocery store parking lot and hit a parked car head on, possibly totaling her car and messing the other one up pretty good too.  The police drove her home and gave her a ticket and some paperwork to keep her out of court.

It also seems that over the last couple of weeks her condition is worsening.  Then Sunday we drove out to the farm to see the boys and find out what they were up to.  I thought some fresh air might be good for her and she agreed.    We hadn't been there too long when she started feeling feint and shocky and needed to go lay down.  She had a massive hot flash and got her shirts off and I let her rest for a bit and attempted to get her to drink some water.  She wouldn't touch the water, could not muster enough energy to get up and finally I said we needed to go to the ER.

I drove her to the closest ER where they hooked up some IV fluids and got them going and took a lot of blood and had it all run to find out what was going on.  I gave them the low down on what had been happening up to that point.  I went to her apartment and picked up her meds to take back to the hospital so they could get them all entered to see about drug interactions, etc.  They x-rayed her head a ct scanned it too!  Her temperature was 93 degrees which seems pretty low to me, she could not walk unassisted and could not have a conversation because she couldn't remember what we were talking about.  Even with the doc.  The doc came to the conclusion that it was all just symptoms of marijuana abuse and was set on discharging her until I pitched a fit with him.  I wanted it on the record that this was not her ordinary condition and there was something here going on, whether he knew what it was or not!  After the marijuana comment, I had lost all respect for him as a medical professional.  It appears to me she was severely dehydrated to the point of almost going into shock, but I am not a doctor.  She improved drastically after the IV bag was done.  
 
I called her boyfriend to tell him what was happening and see what he thought about either taking her home or having her admitted to the hospital overnight.  We decided to take her home with promises from her that she would keep drinking water and would eat something.

The next day I stopped in because she was not answering the phone and I was worried.  Her phone had just lost its charge.  But she had not had anything to eat or drink since the night before - even after having been told how serious it was for her to be so dehydrated.  I don't think she can care for herself anymore.  I took her in to her docs office today and took all her meds and had her evaluated.  I called her sister to come and her boyfriend came too.  The doctor had to deal with us because she could no longer converse in a way that accurately conveyed what she was experiencing.  She has no insurance or money (maybe her 401k from her old job which has not been touched).  I don't know how that is treated as far as eligibility for some services, which she sorely needs.  Her living income is ridiculous.

This doc also doesn't seem to think she will improve very much, if at all, even with treatment.  I'm so sad.  I am doing the best I can but its not enough.  Not nearly enough.  I don't have the financial resources to continue with the expenses I'm incurring while all this is happening.  I'm so worried about her.  I'm worried that I can't fix this.  That no one can.