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My mom turns the tv on each morning and the turns it off. Now I know why,she announces,"let me guess what day it is"LOL!
She's fine physically, but doesn't remember things from recent events. She will tell me in detail about things from 60+ years ago!
The neurologist stopped her from driving and said she could not live alone anymore (she lives with me now) and she still doesn't believe she has a problem.
It's been almost a year now and I'm SO confused,one day she's "normal" the next I'm dealing with a spoiled teenager. Thanks for any insight to this rant.

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BD, I can also attest to the fact that my mom scores all over the place on MMEs, depending on how she's doing that day. This kind of testing simply isn't detailed enough to get at the dysfunction in Executive Function and Reasoning Ability that lies at the core of most dementias.
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Your best bet, i believe, is to get your mom a real cognitive assessment ftom a neuropsychologist. They work with tests with a long history of validation and specificity. Many large rehab hospitals have folks who do this.
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Okay, just looked up more on Montreal instrument, which has not been validated, according to the website.
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So, Beach Diva, the real question is, what do the descriptors on each instrument mean
? You can score Mildly Impaired on the Stanford Binet and Very Low on weschsler iq test. They BOTH mean that you have an IQ of 55 to 69. The results only mean something if you know what the descriptor means.

When my mom was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment we were told she could no longer live alone. There is no cognitive test that diagnoses Alzheimer's, if that's what you're looking for.
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Need to follow.
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OMG!! Just left PCP that gave her a MME test that she scored in the Mild Cognitive Impairment range. Duh, the questions that she knows because she was she told. Answers "summer?"....95 and humid outside. Last time they gave her the Montreal Memory test and she tested in the severe range. I'm still confused!!! This was a totally different test that 5 year old could have done. What gives ?!
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Yes, up until a point a person with dementia can act normal at times. Can actually BE normal at times. And can put on an act to appear normal at times. But as the disease progresses the ability to appear and sound normal at times will fade away.
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Beach, throughout the course of the disease there are fluctuations in cognition. I imagine that especially early in the disease that they can seem almost normal. They are experts at covering up. My mom was diagnosed ten years ago. When the doc told her, with her soon to be former high school boyfriend, soon to be husband with her, that she had dementia my mother went a bit crazy. She startes screaming at the doctor, telling her she was incompetent, that she would never see that doctor again then stormed out of the office.

This set my Mom's husband up for many years of denial about my Mom's condition, six years in fact. When mom became forgetful she would laugh it off. Her new hubby thought that her forgetfulness was her trying to be cute or funny. That was easier for him then facing the truth. He only began to realize what was occurring to mom following a hip replacement that had him in rehav for three months when he only saw her for dinner each day. He was no longer mom's 24/7 caregiver so when he was released from rehab the change he saw in my mom was unbelieveable. It wasn't that there was a significant change, but he finally began to see and understand what was occurring with my mom. And he still has his moments of denial, but is so saddened to see what has happened with my mom.
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