For years my mom has shown signs of dementia which has become progressively worse including increased weakness, decreased mobility, decreased appetite, increased sleepiness, decreased language skills, increased confusion, agitation etc. Suddenly she has improved substantially to the point that we are questioning whether or not she still has dementia. No UTIs, labs good. Has anyone ever seen this happen? She's 100.
It can be hard to tell what is causing what when they have a lot of issues. Dementia itself I always thought was like a downwards set of stairs. The overall direction is always down. But they sometimes linger a long while on a certain “step” and also sometimes try a down step, go back to the previous step, etc. I think when one neural pathway is cut off, the brain can sometimes temporarily “reroute” but the overall pattern is the pathways are closing off and can’t be rebuilt.
Is she in a facility, or at home? LTC? Or is she in hospice?
Has there been any changes in medications?
Maybe she is rallying...?