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A very close friends mother has gone from being active, able bodied, competent, and able to take care of herself, to a shell of that person in 7 months. She started getting lost on her way to her sisters house, somewhere she went every day for 40 years. Forgetting what type of things she would do or who she would do them with. Make little lies about things she did not know the answers to. Getting up in the middle of the night to vacuum, then do it all over again as soon as she put it away. If you asked her why, she would say because it needs vacuuming. She did not remember just doing it. She was taken to the Dr. who said it sounded like a B vitamin problem and ordered B12 shots every month. That did nothing and after 3 months of her only getting worse they changed Dr.s. Some tests were ordered, head CT, shows nothing, labs, nothing out of the ordinary, and some sort of memory testing that would take several hrs. (still has not been scheduled) Last week she got up in the middle of the night and took a shower, 6 times. They last time she did it she had her nightgown on and just got back into bed with it on wet. She sleeps all day and night and does nothing. The Dr. mentioned depression as well but this women went from being everything to nothing in 6 months time. She is 73. Any thoughts?

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Memory issues can be caused by things other than alzheimers or another form of dementia. Things such as urinary track infections and thyroid funtioning can cause severe memory loss. But that can return if the underlying problem is treated. Your friend might try to bring her Mom to a geriatrician for a complete look over.
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"nothing out of the ordinary" is not the same as "Normal". You say Alzheimer's, but is that a formal diagnosis? Or are you guessing? Although Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60-70 percent of cases of dementia, other disorders that cause dementia include: Vascular dementia, Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy Bodies and Frontotemporal dementia. In the early stages of a disease, there can be some clear differences between the diseases.
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No she has not been diagnosed with anything at all. She has seen her primary Dr. who refereed her to a neurologist. He did lab work, UA, head CT. He said there was nothing remarkable in any of her results. His suggestion was monthly B12 shots. He also put her on a patch, Rivastigmine. The first day she was on the patch she acted almost normal for a few hrs. Then right back to where she is now. But so far no clear Dx has been made. I just see this family struggling so much trying to figure out what to do next.
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