Could this be dementia?

[Nebiroth]

The third test should be viewed with caution. Someone who already has dementia is quite likely to be unable to remember the sentence they've been told to repeat.

As I recall, this is one of the tests in the MMSE, and it's one that my Dad fails, because his short-term memory is so bad that the sentence is forgotten between it being said and his starting to say it.

He usually manages some of it, but there's nearly always a key word missing, or round the wrong way!

So it's important to establish what is, for the person, "normal" as opposed to "abnormal" symptoms.

 

[BeadieJay]

Mum phoned

Had a really lovely surprise this evening - Mum phoned. Totally out of the blue and sounding as happy and cheerful as she always did.

Apparently my sister had been to visit earlier and taken loads of flower cuttings from mum's garden, and I guess sis must have mentioned me which made mum think to phone. She was telling me all about the garden and how lovely the weather was, and then, so frustratingly, my phone packed up (the handset has been playing up for weeks, but never before cut out during a conversation). Anyway I phoned mum back and she said that she had to go as dad said her supper was ready.

The fact that dad was doing supper means that mum still isn't feeling her normal self, so I was sad to hear that. And so annoyed that the phone cut out because I didn't get a chance to ask her how she was feeling. She sounded so normal, and yet my sister keeps saying that she's not well enough for me to visit her with the kids because she wouldn't cope with them around, it's so difficult for me to picture the frail woman that my sister portrays, with the mum I've always known, who was on the phone just now.

I guess, tho don't know for sure, that these glimpses of the real person behind the illness, can be quite common? I can't help but hope that she's recovering and that maybe I will be able to take the kids down to see her soon.

 

[Lila13]

It was a wonder my great aunt did partially recover from her stroke as at first the doctors just said she was dying and didn't do anything for her, then that she'd never walk or talk again, put her in a nursing home where they washed and fed her but did nothing else, but with a lot of hard work (her own and family working with her) she did learn to walk and talk again. She didn't have dementia with it, though of course some of the symptoms are similar.

And she was so grateful, for such little things!

 

[BeadieJay]

Lila, I'm sorry I didn't reply to your post sooner - that's great that your aunt was able to recover enough to walk and talk again. My grandad had a stroke and was totally incapacitated for 13 long months before he died. Your aunt sounds to be one of the lucky ones, though done with lots of hard work.

****************************

My mum has now been seen by a consultant who did the standard memory test with her. I forgot to ask my sister what her score was, but sis said that mum was okay with some things and not with others...e.g. she didn't know what month it is, and couldn't remember the 3 words she'd been told to recall, amongst some other things.

The consultant sent mum off with the nurse to have her blood pressure taken, and asked my sister if she thought mum would agree to have a brain scan. My sister said that mum would agree to it, because she would make her LOL

One telling comment from the consultant was that they need to make sure mum doesn't get any worse - which we took to mean that she won't get any better

My dad lost his car last week. He had to get a taxi home from wherever he was. But when he got in the car with my sister to try and find the car, he knew exactly where to go

I can't help but worry about how long it will be before mum and dad can't cope alone anymore

 

[Helena]

There really is no urgency in getting your Mother to the Doctor

The real problem is getting your sister or your Mother to face the reality of the situation
Theres no treatment for mini strokes but unless the condition is diagnosed and a referral to consultants at hospital made you cant make decisions or face whats to come

My Mothers GPs ignored my calls to them , DVLA were lax in taking action
Peoples cars must have been damaged .......thankfully i dont think she injured anyone
But her last 5 miserable weeks in hospital need not have occured if referrals had been made and the hospital were officially aware of her condition when they fought so hard to treat the pneumonia

 

[Lila13]

Yes, it depends which part of the brain is affected, whether any recovery is possible; my great-aunt was lucky that she didn't actually have dementia with it, I still have a letter which she wrote with great difficulty with her left hand after her partial recovery, she'd been right-handed but determinedly learned to write again, even if it was only a few words a day, she was also lucky there were so many relations who helped to look after her, she had looked after so many people before that herself, I remember myself as a child saying I don't want to be like Auntie P... (seeing the way she was taken for granted as a resource). It was lucky she had a few good years after that stroke.

When I was trying to get my mother to plan for her old age I reminded her of others she'd looked after including Auntie P... and my mother said "well, I'm not going to have a stroke" ... as if it were something one could have any control over. Of course we know now that there are things we can do to reduce risks, but things still happen.

Lila

 

[Helena]

We have to remember there is a great deal of difference between someone having a major stroke and getting fast clot busting treatment and follow up physio

to the condition of Vascular Dementia which is a whole series of mini strokes right acros the brain ........this seems to cause the swings from normality to off days

If theres also Cortical Atrophy then the dementia and erratic behaviour increases

only by having a Brain Scan can it be determined what and where the infarcts /clots are and what the effects on the patient are