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Drarlo Asked August 2012

Is this a sign of worsening dementia?

My mother has had a stroke and has aphasia, trouble with words. She has also been suffering from what I thought was mild dementia. Yesterday she was upset because she couldn't remember her name. I wrote it down for her and she uses it as a reminder. Is this a sign of worsening dementia?

Drarlo Aug 2012
Sunflo, the last time I took my mother for the dementia test, the doctor asked her who the president of the United Sates was. She told the doctor, "I don't need this sh*t!" So I don't want to put her, or the poor doctor, through it again. :)

sunflo2 Aug 2012
Could be dementia worsening; but with some of the other stuff going on -- it could be related to medications; stress, etc. Usually the doctor will do a baseline test having them perform a few functions -- drawing clock; counting backwords, remembering 3 words, etc. Then they can repeat the test 30 days or some other timeframe and see if they get worse or hesitate. Best to talk with health professionals who know your mother and see what they say. They can give some meds (Aricept/Namenda) that can help her not get worse for a while longer. God bless to all of you. My mom, has many delusions, hallucinations and paranoia about missing items -- she doesn't always fess up; other times she will comment "must've been a dream?"; and a couple things she is fixated on and can't let go. Best advice? painful; but just go with it. I may comment once and try to "reset" her to truth -- but i no longer try to bring her to my reality; I just let her be in hers. You might post her name in pictures or dwgs on the wall to help her remember as I'm sure it is very important to her.

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TiredinOregon Aug 2012
Oh I know what you mean about humor Drarlo. Mom goes through nasty spells. I gve her her normal nightly blood pressure meds last night on a piece of bread. She told me to shove it....LOL. I kind of turned the cat thing back at her and asked her why she'd let two strange men come into her house and steal her cats and walk off. Why didn't you call the police? Why didn't you come get me? LOL. When I did that, she went back to must be a dream. It's really hard watching someone who use to be nice and easy going turn into a petty nasty old broad. Since I don't have kids, I guess I'll have to pay someone to treat this crappy....LOL

Drarlo Aug 2012
I know. A couple of weeks ago, my mother was sure someone stole one of her tee shirts. It went on for days, and she insisted she had looked everywhere. Kept saying, "Who would steal my shirt?" About a week later, what was she wearing? That's right, the tee shirt. I try hard to find the comedy in it all and laugh because the alternative is awful.

TiredinOregon Aug 2012
Hello everyone. I'm new here. My mom is 91 and has dementia. The memory part is the hardest Darlo. Mom only has one cat with her downstairs, but she's convinced 2 men came into the house and took "all" her cats. Logic doesn't work as a tool to help her, and this is her 4th day of dwelling on this event that didn't happen. It's really hard and I wish you and everyone here peace and blessings.

Drarlo Aug 2012
I'm sorry for your loss. It is so hard to watch as they lose themselves.

vstefans Aug 2012
Yeah, they found out my mom's clopridogrel and ticlodipine basically were not working, but Coumadin was too high a risk, so we were stuck too. We went as far as Ranexa max dose for her inoperable coronary artery disease, but she was too sick and probably could not have tolerated the EECP which was about the only other thing to try. We considered trying it anyways, but she was in hospice care before we got a second chance to...she finally had brainstem stroke and MI one day after the next, and that was it. Before that, she could eat OK and had a quality of life- we would have tried whatever to give her a little more time; we were hoping for a trip to the zoo, and if she had could hung on she would have had a chance to have her favorite grandson, with his brand new driver's license, drive her places, which she would have LOVED.

Drarlo Aug 2012
Thank you. Yes, she's had plenty of medical attention, but there is only so much to be done, as you know.

vstefans Aug 2012
If she is remembering to use the reminder, that suggests that it could instead be her aphasia making it hard for her to retireive a word from memory...maybe ask her speech therapist to see if there are other things to help! Does her doctor know, and are they doing anythign medically to try to decrease risk of additional strokes or extension of previous strokes? Strokes and vascular dementia do go hand in hand though' my mom had both too. That has got to be upsetting for both of you and my heart goes out to you...hugs..

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