We've been worried about my grandma for a few months now, and I was wondering if anyone might be able to help give my some insight with their own experiences or advice. Sorry if this is quite a long post! I really appreciate anyone taking the time to read.
Not long ago (around early summer I think) my grandma was told by her doctor that she had a borderline thyroid problem (I'm not certain if it was borderline underactive or overactive thyroid, but I think it was overactive), but he said if she wasn't having any symptoms that they wouldn't put her on any medication and she was going to go back for a checkup in this coming March.
Fast forward to a few months back, my auntie mentioned that she was a bit worried about my grandma's memory, and she'd noticed her becoming forgetful. A couple of times my grandma had made plans with my mum and then forgotten. We'd also noticed some mood changes, she seems to be getting overly stressed and worked up about things. She had been doing a cleaning job a few hours a week in the mornings and had been getting really anxious about it and was having problems sleeping. My mum told her if it's making you stressed to stop doing it as there's no point, she didn't need the money and was only doing it to help out a friend, so she did. We also had a lot of rain a few months back and my grandma told us that she'd been up all night unable to sleep because she was worried about her house flooding, and that she'd had heart palpitations.
My grandma had power of attorney for a cousin of hers who was 101, and she'd had to organise her moving into a resdiential home. She sadly passed away around Christmas time, and my grandma had been organising her funeral which she had become very stressed and anxious about. She'd expressed to us that she'd noticed herself being forgetful (in a half jokey way) but had put it down to the stress she'd been experiencing with her cousin's funeral and hoped she would be back to normal once it was all over. I stayed at her house for the weekend near the time of her cousin's funeral, and mostly everything seemed fine, we went shopping, she cooked for us, we watched TV together and had normal conversations. She spoke about recent things like her organising the funeral, the election, etc. But there were two things that I noticed. We'd been shopping and I'd paid for both of our things in one of the shops, and my Grandma paid for us to have lunch. When we came back to hers she said she wanted to pay me back for the things I'd paid for and got her calculator out to work out how much I'd paid for her things. I insisted it was fine and that she'd paid for lunch and I didn't want her to pay me back. Around 20-30 minutes later, she insisted again that she owed me some money and wanted to pay me back as she wanted lunch to be her treat, she went to the drawer again to get her calculator and said "Oo where's my calculator gone?" then she saw that she'd left it on the table and laughed. This time she insisted and gave me the money. I wasn't sure if she'd forgotten that she'd already tried to pay me back, or whether she'd just had more of a think about it and decided she really wanted to pay me back! So it might've been nothing, but because I knew she'd been a bit forgetful recently I was looking for things. The other thing was that her sink had been leaking when she turned the tap on before I'd got there (only a little bit of dripping, not gushing out or anything), which had stressed her out, and when I tried to have a shower before I went to bed no water was coming out - the water coming out of the sinks and bath was fine though. I think this had made her worry that it was a more serious problem with the plumbing though, but she came into my room at 8am to wake me up and ask for me to ring my Mum. It was a Sunday and she wanted my Dad to drive up to hers as soon as possible to have a look at her sink and shower as she wouldn't be able to get a plumber unless she rang an emergency one, she said she was sorry to wake me up so early but she'd been awake since 5am worrying about it. I just thought it was a little bit unusual that she had been so anxious about it when it wasn't an emergency. She always uses the bath rather than the shower and it turns out whoever stayed at hers last and used her shower had knocked a switch on the head off, and my Dad was able to repair her sink.
The funeral was a month ago now, and her memory and mood changes don't seem to have improved. Her birthday is in March and originally she said she wanted a party at a place in town. She then told my Mum she didn't want a fuss and would rather it just be a small thing with close family round at my aunty's house. This isn't that unusual, as she's never really liked much of a fuss or being the centre of attention, but I did wonder if she'd maybe been feeling a bit worried or conscious of her forgetfulness. The day afterwards she spoke to my aunty about her party and had seemed to have forgotten that she'd asked my mum to change the plans, but was happy when my aunty told her that they were no longer doing the party. However, since then she's now invited 32 people to my aunty's house, so it seems she's no longer wanting it as just family!
My mum and aunty spoke to her about her anxiety and her forgetfulness, and convinced her to go for a blood test. They'd looked online and seen that thyroid problems can cause problems with memory and mood changes, which can often be mistaken for dementia, and given that the doctor had previously mentioned her thyroid they said it'd be a good idea to get it checked. She had her blood test this week, and is getting the results next Wednesday. Although I'm not convinced, I've looked online and it seems that memory problems and confusion seem to only be mentioned as a symptom of an underactive thyroid, rather than overactive. We think it was overactive thyroid that the doctor had mentioned previously, and all the other symptoms she's been experiencing (weight loss, anxiety, mood changes, heart palpitations, difficutly sleeping) seem to be associated with an overactive thyroid (except for the memory problems!). They also seem to be symptoms that could be explained by a dementia too.
My grandma text my mum today to say that she's worried about her brain and wanted a chat. She told her that when she came out of her doctors appointment, she couldn't remember where she'd parked and she didn't really recognise where she was or and couldn't remember why she was there for a minute or so, in an area she knows well. But then she remembered, found her car and drove home fine. But this is very alarming to me, and I know disorientation like this in particular is a sign of some dementias. Whether thyroid related dementia-like symptoms can cause this sort of confusion/disorientation as well I don't know?
I was wondering whether anyone else knew whether an overactive thyroid can cause symptoms similar to dementia too, or whether it is just underactive? I do have a bad feeling that it's not going to be thyroid related. But I'm glad that my Grandma is aware of the problems she's having and is talking to us about it. Hopefully if it is a form of dementia we can get it diagnosed quickly. I guess we'll just have to wait for the blood test results and go from there...
Any insight or advice would be much welcomed!
Not long ago (around early summer I think) my grandma was told by her doctor that she had a borderline thyroid problem (I'm not certain if it was borderline underactive or overactive thyroid, but I think it was overactive), but he said if she wasn't having any symptoms that they wouldn't put her on any medication and she was going to go back for a checkup in this coming March.
Fast forward to a few months back, my auntie mentioned that she was a bit worried about my grandma's memory, and she'd noticed her becoming forgetful. A couple of times my grandma had made plans with my mum and then forgotten. We'd also noticed some mood changes, she seems to be getting overly stressed and worked up about things. She had been doing a cleaning job a few hours a week in the mornings and had been getting really anxious about it and was having problems sleeping. My mum told her if it's making you stressed to stop doing it as there's no point, she didn't need the money and was only doing it to help out a friend, so she did. We also had a lot of rain a few months back and my grandma told us that she'd been up all night unable to sleep because she was worried about her house flooding, and that she'd had heart palpitations.
My grandma had power of attorney for a cousin of hers who was 101, and she'd had to organise her moving into a resdiential home. She sadly passed away around Christmas time, and my grandma had been organising her funeral which she had become very stressed and anxious about. She'd expressed to us that she'd noticed herself being forgetful (in a half jokey way) but had put it down to the stress she'd been experiencing with her cousin's funeral and hoped she would be back to normal once it was all over. I stayed at her house for the weekend near the time of her cousin's funeral, and mostly everything seemed fine, we went shopping, she cooked for us, we watched TV together and had normal conversations. She spoke about recent things like her organising the funeral, the election, etc. But there were two things that I noticed. We'd been shopping and I'd paid for both of our things in one of the shops, and my Grandma paid for us to have lunch. When we came back to hers she said she wanted to pay me back for the things I'd paid for and got her calculator out to work out how much I'd paid for her things. I insisted it was fine and that she'd paid for lunch and I didn't want her to pay me back. Around 20-30 minutes later, she insisted again that she owed me some money and wanted to pay me back as she wanted lunch to be her treat, she went to the drawer again to get her calculator and said "Oo where's my calculator gone?" then she saw that she'd left it on the table and laughed. This time she insisted and gave me the money. I wasn't sure if she'd forgotten that she'd already tried to pay me back, or whether she'd just had more of a think about it and decided she really wanted to pay me back! So it might've been nothing, but because I knew she'd been a bit forgetful recently I was looking for things. The other thing was that her sink had been leaking when she turned the tap on before I'd got there (only a little bit of dripping, not gushing out or anything), which had stressed her out, and when I tried to have a shower before I went to bed no water was coming out - the water coming out of the sinks and bath was fine though. I think this had made her worry that it was a more serious problem with the plumbing though, but she came into my room at 8am to wake me up and ask for me to ring my Mum. It was a Sunday and she wanted my Dad to drive up to hers as soon as possible to have a look at her sink and shower as she wouldn't be able to get a plumber unless she rang an emergency one, she said she was sorry to wake me up so early but she'd been awake since 5am worrying about it. I just thought it was a little bit unusual that she had been so anxious about it when it wasn't an emergency. She always uses the bath rather than the shower and it turns out whoever stayed at hers last and used her shower had knocked a switch on the head off, and my Dad was able to repair her sink.
The funeral was a month ago now, and her memory and mood changes don't seem to have improved. Her birthday is in March and originally she said she wanted a party at a place in town. She then told my Mum she didn't want a fuss and would rather it just be a small thing with close family round at my aunty's house. This isn't that unusual, as she's never really liked much of a fuss or being the centre of attention, but I did wonder if she'd maybe been feeling a bit worried or conscious of her forgetfulness. The day afterwards she spoke to my aunty about her party and had seemed to have forgotten that she'd asked my mum to change the plans, but was happy when my aunty told her that they were no longer doing the party. However, since then she's now invited 32 people to my aunty's house, so it seems she's no longer wanting it as just family!
My mum and aunty spoke to her about her anxiety and her forgetfulness, and convinced her to go for a blood test. They'd looked online and seen that thyroid problems can cause problems with memory and mood changes, which can often be mistaken for dementia, and given that the doctor had previously mentioned her thyroid they said it'd be a good idea to get it checked. She had her blood test this week, and is getting the results next Wednesday. Although I'm not convinced, I've looked online and it seems that memory problems and confusion seem to only be mentioned as a symptom of an underactive thyroid, rather than overactive. We think it was overactive thyroid that the doctor had mentioned previously, and all the other symptoms she's been experiencing (weight loss, anxiety, mood changes, heart palpitations, difficutly sleeping) seem to be associated with an overactive thyroid (except for the memory problems!). They also seem to be symptoms that could be explained by a dementia too.
My grandma text my mum today to say that she's worried about her brain and wanted a chat. She told her that when she came out of her doctors appointment, she couldn't remember where she'd parked and she didn't really recognise where she was or and couldn't remember why she was there for a minute or so, in an area she knows well. But then she remembered, found her car and drove home fine. But this is very alarming to me, and I know disorientation like this in particular is a sign of some dementias. Whether thyroid related dementia-like symptoms can cause this sort of confusion/disorientation as well I don't know?
I was wondering whether anyone else knew whether an overactive thyroid can cause symptoms similar to dementia too, or whether it is just underactive? I do have a bad feeling that it's not going to be thyroid related. But I'm glad that my Grandma is aware of the problems she's having and is talking to us about it. Hopefully if it is a form of dementia we can get it diagnosed quickly. I guess we'll just have to wait for the blood test results and go from there...
Any insight or advice would be much welcomed!
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