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Firstly I have been lurking around here for a while now and feel comfortable enough to start asking questions and hopefully helping others as well. I am caring for my mother who has either dementia or Alzheimer’s. I say either because she hasn’t officially been diagnosed with anything thing yet. Her Dr for some reason is trying to say that her condition is just old age. I won’t go through all the things that have happen just in the past few months, but suffice to say this Dr is a complete moron. My sister who is a nurse and works in a nursing home is pissed as hell at this Doctors complete lack of ability to diagnose this issue. She has been to a memory doctor and took a bunch of test which she did poorly on as we all knew she would. Before I go further I will give you some of the things she has done in the past few months. She has had delusional thoughts, thinking that people that have been dead for years are still alive, she has thought I was 2 different people at one time. She has trouble coming up with the right word for the situation. Basically she has all the symptoms of dementia and the fact that her own Doctor fails to realize this is beyond believe. We were going to change doctors, but my mother love this doctor so for now we are sticking with him. Mom is going to see a neurologist in the next couple of weeks thanks to my sister who is paying for it since it’s out of her network. I’m quite sure this doctor will give a proper diagnosis and from there we will be able to begin some kind of treatment. I personally think that mom is in the later stages of the first phase of the disease and is heading for the second. She has already shown signs of sundowing late in the day. Not every day, but still show signs of being confused and disillusioned. The only treatment she is getting is me giving her coconut oil as I saw that story about the Doctor who was giving it to her husband who has Alzheimer’s and it seemed to help. So far after a month I really haven’t seen any improvement, but I’ll keep giving it to her just to fatten her up as she is way too skinny. I have a lot of questions, but this was mainly an introduction to the rest of you caregivers.

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I'm sorry to hear about your mother. The neurologist should be able to give you some answers. Personally, I doubt coconut oil has any long-term effect on memory loss, the way Dr. Mary Newport claims that it does, but if it makes you feel better, try it.
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Our mom has dementia and delusions as well. The dementia MD asked about hallucinations (not the same as delusions) which mom did not have. He said hallucinations were a hallmark of Alzheimer's. Given that mom has evidence of past unreported stroke activity on her CT scan, he said she was most likely having multi-infarct dementia. Her strokes are so minor, she is not aware of them, does not report them, but the damage has accumulated.
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My Dad is trying to go gluten-free because he read where it will help with body aches and pain, plus gluten might have something to do with brain fog and memory loss. He's experimenting, has less pain.... the jury is out on the fixing of brain fog but it's too early to tell.
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lpap, you are probably right about the dementia. Close family members can probably diagnose it faster than any doctor, because we see all that goes on. We know how they were and how they are. And we know about the kids hiding in the closet, the spiders crawling through the floorboards, and the relatives who are stealing everything. I have a feeling that caregivers' diagnoses would be correct almost all the time.

Great to have you get out of lurk mode. Welcome!
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