confusing

[SHANDY]

my mom is in a nurding home and has had dementia for about 18 months, she amazes me every time i go to see her, she can write her name in full, play oxo, sing songs and remember the words, last night i took her into her room to clear out the wardrobe of old clothes and she said ' oh it's ten past six' when i looked behind me at the clock in her room, she was right it was ten past six. i was gobsmacked, when other days she cannot string a sentence together. has anyone else had this experience.


keep the faith
shandy

 

[fearful fiona]

Dear Shandy

I have this experience with Mum and it is terribly unsettling. Sometimes it is though there is nothing wrong with her, she plays scrabble and chats away quite intelligently then other days she hardly remembers my name, or names of quite common things and seems to be a case of "the lights are on and no-one's in".

If we weren't so closely affected, dementia would be a really interesting illness.

Good luck!

 

[noelphobic]

I think this is one of the most distressing things around dementia. I think most people would agree that there are 'good days' and 'bad days'.

Best wishes
Nada

Absolutely. There can be such a variation in my mum from one day to the next. She is in a very advanced stage so there is never a time when it is not obvious that she has problems, but she does still amaze me at times.

Sadly she is not good at all at the moment. Very distressed and agitated the other day, although better yesterday.

 

[jenniferpa]

Ditto to what everyone else has said. Unfortunately I have noticed the good days are fewer and farther between: there are more and more days when she simply has a slight smile on her face (the bad days) as opposed to the good days when the lights are on and there's most definitely (definitely should really be in huge letters) somebody home.

I think there is some rhyme or reason to it: if she has slept well, has no pain or underlying infection, has eaten and drank appropriately she's more likely to have a good day, but that's a lot of ducks to get in a row at any one time when you're 90.

Jennifer