My Mum is 90 years old and up until 2 weeks ago she has never shown any signs of dementia. She has always been 100% compos mentis and as bright as a button. However, 2 weeks ago she suddenly became confused, and she couldn’t string her words together when trying to hold a conversation. She knew what she wanted to say but the words just wouldn’t come out. She was aware of this and was getting a little anxious as she didn’t know why this was happening. She also started panicking about not being able to breath properly and started making funny noises as if she was burping, but she wasn’t bringing any wind up. We rang 111 and they said they would send out a paramedic to check her over. When the paramedics arrived, Mum was her normal self again and held a perfectly normal conversation with them and they really couldn’t find anything wrong with her. They said we could take her to A&E to get further checks for our own peace of mind. We took her to A&E and they carried out an ECG, blood tests, x-rays, urine test, etc. and they said that they couldn’t find anything wrong apart from a very slight urine infection. They sent her home with antibiotics.
She was OK again until last Friday when she had the same problem with stringing her words together. We called a doctor who came out and said that there was nothing wrong with her. However, my brother was up all night with her that evening and she was very frightened as she knew something wasn’t right. She spent most of the night in the loo, and was confused. We rang 111 again and an ambulance came and took her back into hospital. They done all the tests again including a CT scan. She perked up by the evening, and the next day was totally compos mentis, and seemed fine. Even the doctors thought she was brilliant for her age, and said she had a great sense of humour. They said they couldn’t find anything wrong with her, and all the tests came back fine, however, they did give her another course of antibiotics although they didn’t mention why they had given them to her.
She came home on Tuesday and has been fine all week until yesterday when she got confused again. She also started making strange breathing noises again and kept saying she wants to burp but it wouldn’t come out. She also spent most of the day going to the toilet. I rang her GP to ask why this was happening and he said looking at her CT scan she might have vascular dementia and suggested that we take her to the doctors for a memory test. Why the hospital didn’t mention this God only knows!
Apart from these few episodes of confusion she is 90 years old and is on all sorts of medication for various ailments. I know she is on blood pressure tablets, water tablets, heart tablets, and warfarin tablets, but I am not sure about her other medication. She also has a hiatus hernia, and one of her ears is completely blocked with wax and has been for 7 months, and even after using drops for all this time it remains blocked and she has trouble hearing from one ear, but the doctors don’t seem in the least bit concerned about it.
What I don’t understand is that most of the time she is completely normal, and you can hold a completely normal conversation with her, and then she gets confused about what she is doing, or why she is doing it, or what she is trying to say, and within an hour or two she is back to her normal self again as if nothing happened.
Could this be the start of Dementia? Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
She was OK again until last Friday when she had the same problem with stringing her words together. We called a doctor who came out and said that there was nothing wrong with her. However, my brother was up all night with her that evening and she was very frightened as she knew something wasn’t right. She spent most of the night in the loo, and was confused. We rang 111 again and an ambulance came and took her back into hospital. They done all the tests again including a CT scan. She perked up by the evening, and the next day was totally compos mentis, and seemed fine. Even the doctors thought she was brilliant for her age, and said she had a great sense of humour. They said they couldn’t find anything wrong with her, and all the tests came back fine, however, they did give her another course of antibiotics although they didn’t mention why they had given them to her.
She came home on Tuesday and has been fine all week until yesterday when she got confused again. She also started making strange breathing noises again and kept saying she wants to burp but it wouldn’t come out. She also spent most of the day going to the toilet. I rang her GP to ask why this was happening and he said looking at her CT scan she might have vascular dementia and suggested that we take her to the doctors for a memory test. Why the hospital didn’t mention this God only knows!
Apart from these few episodes of confusion she is 90 years old and is on all sorts of medication for various ailments. I know she is on blood pressure tablets, water tablets, heart tablets, and warfarin tablets, but I am not sure about her other medication. She also has a hiatus hernia, and one of her ears is completely blocked with wax and has been for 7 months, and even after using drops for all this time it remains blocked and she has trouble hearing from one ear, but the doctors don’t seem in the least bit concerned about it.
What I don’t understand is that most of the time she is completely normal, and you can hold a completely normal conversation with her, and then she gets confused about what she is doing, or why she is doing it, or what she is trying to say, and within an hour or two she is back to her normal self again as if nothing happened.
Could this be the start of Dementia? Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
