We are very sure as a family that my mum has dementia of some sort. She is 80 and for a couple of years she has been very forgetful, especially during periods of stress. Some days are like groundhog day with repeated conversations and questions. A bit worrying, but not too stressful so far.
However she seems to have deteriorated rapidly and for the past few weeks she has been imagining that there have been visitors to the house and has been calling outside for pets that died long ago. There have been numerous occasions when she seems to have lost all sense of reality.
We've managed to get her to the doctors for a few appointments this week (to discuss her uncontrolled diabetes and her mental state), however she is very distressed, depressed and and in complete denial, although I think she really does know that something is wrong. She is due to have an assessment at the memory clinic soon.
The question I have is, at this relatively early stage, do we tell her when she has imagined things or forgotten very recent events or do we pretend not to notice? I realise that once a diagnosis is in place that it may be best not to pick her up on her lapses, but I have no idea how to handle it right now. I don't want to make the situation worse than it already is, but it would be helpful if she could see that there are problems too.
Apologies for the above essay, but we've never had to deal with this before as our grandparents died before any dementia could become apparent and we are a bit lost right now.
Thank you.
However she seems to have deteriorated rapidly and for the past few weeks she has been imagining that there have been visitors to the house and has been calling outside for pets that died long ago. There have been numerous occasions when she seems to have lost all sense of reality.
We've managed to get her to the doctors for a few appointments this week (to discuss her uncontrolled diabetes and her mental state), however she is very distressed, depressed and and in complete denial, although I think she really does know that something is wrong. She is due to have an assessment at the memory clinic soon.
The question I have is, at this relatively early stage, do we tell her when she has imagined things or forgotten very recent events or do we pretend not to notice? I realise that once a diagnosis is in place that it may be best not to pick her up on her lapses, but I have no idea how to handle it right now. I don't want to make the situation worse than it already is, but it would be helpful if she could see that there are problems too.
Apologies for the above essay, but we've never had to deal with this before as our grandparents died before any dementia could become apparent and we are a bit lost right now.
Thank you.