Long term memory going

[Linbrusco]

Mum 73 with AD could remember where she first met Dad, when she was 19, but could not remember how Dad proposed, where they got married, what church, where they went for their honeymoon... at best she just guessed, but was muddled on facts.
Dad did National Service and was stationed in Kenya Africa for 14mths. Mum lived there with him, and my sister was born there. Mum is very vague about details also.
She gets facts muddled with living in Africa in 1962 with going to Papua New Guinea in 1994. Even looking at a pic taken in PNG in 1994 when she was 53, she says was taken in Africa ( when she was 21).

She forgets who is who in photos when looking at her parents and grandparents, and even asked her Great Aunt who s 84, if she was her mothers sister.
Great Aunt was quite shocked at this.

What significance does losing more long term memory mean on the scale of decline?

Mum was diagnosed Aug 13, and has been on Donepezil 5mg since Dec 13.
A higher dose didn't agree with her.

 

[florabunda]

My mum's long term memory is also going. Her short term memory is already confused. My sister phones her every week, but she could not remember my sister's name, although I spent an hour talking to mum and tried to encourage her by saying at intervals "It'll come to you" - but it didn't. She often confuses me with her own sister, my aunt. She gets very muddled looking at photographs; she is better at identifying her grandparents than her children, and cannot manage to recognise her grandchildren at all.
My family live some distance away and don't see mum very often. Last time my brother visited she was having a particularly bad day - I'd had to go round to mum's early that morning to find something she had lost - but he did not notice, and said how bright she appeared! I feel so frustrated.

 

[Oxy]

Find that level of memory loss is proportional to level of tiredness and of course time of day and level of wellness.

 

[Ann Mac]

Lin, increasingly I'm finding that longer term memories are going with my Mil too. When she first came to live with us, it seemed to me that her strongest memories started back in the mid to late 1970s, at the point when OH was heading towards his teens - after that, things were very wobbly in her head, in terms of what happened when. Lately, I would say that the stronger memories go back to the 1950s, when SHE was in her teens! She used to always ask where her late husband is, forgetting he passed away in 1996 - now, she is more likely to ask me where her Mum is, and can I take her to visit her parents. I asked once how old her Mum is - 'Oh, in her 40's now', she said - she is 73 herself, and her Mum passed away in her 50's, late in the 1960's. She often thinks that she either has to go to school, or has just left school and either has to find a job or has just started a job. She is convinced, most of the time that her now 81 year old brother has just joined the army, and talks about the antics of another brother, who was always a bit a lad and the black sheep, as though its currently a source of embarressment to her - he died about 30 years ago

 

[Linbrusco]

Find that level of memory loss is proportional to level of tiredness and of course time of day and level of wellness.

definitely true.

The more random facts and beliefs are from 4pm onwards... but this can still be despite whether Mum has a nap or not.

I wish some of Mums family would be able to spend a whole day with her.
Get quite fed up with the lot of them who think we are all exaggerating.

Mums brother came to visit the other day, who moved overseas and whom she hasn't seen for about 2 years.
In a 1hr visit, of course she seemed perfectly fine, and he's telling her and Dad to get their passports renewed and come over for a holiday
Mum (and dad ) cannot even manage catching a bus let alone a plane.

 

[Onlyme]

Sadly Mum has no past memories either long or short. She lives in the now, knows I am daughter. Very rarely she will mutter about finding her mother but that is it.

 

[Gingertwist]

Yes there do seem to be good days and bad days and I do think that with my Mum when she does not see anyone that is when she is at her worst. Possibly she has nothing else to think about and confuses real things with fabricated. I have been her sister and her niece. She talks like I knew her Mother who died when my Mum was 2. She has forgotten that my Dad has died and asks if I still see him and how he went off with 'that woman'.(he never did) Some days are clearly more muddled than others, but my Mum is jovial and finds it funny when she cant remember things. Oh and when something goes missing it has usually been stolen. For me when Im having a good day I can cope with the memory loss, the tales and confusion, get me on a bad day when Im tired, had a rotten day at work, I find my patience is really tested. Then I get home and feel bad. I do wish there was a cure.

 

[count2ten]

Yes there do seem to be good days and bad days and I do think that with my Mum when she does not see anyone that is when she is at her worst. Possibly she has nothing else to think about and confuses real things with fabricated. I have been her sister and her niece. She talks like I knew her Mother who died when my Mum was 2. She has forgotten that my Dad has died and asks if I still see him and how he went off with 'that woman'.(he never did) Some days are clearly more muddled than others, but my Mum is jovial and finds it funny when she cant remember things. Oh and when something goes missing it has usually been stolen. For me when Im having a good day I can cope with the memory loss, the tales and confusion, get me on a bad day when Im tired, had a rotten day at work, I find my patience is really tested. Then I get home and feel bad. I do wish there was a cure.

It's when they spend so much time one their own they get more muddled and confused. And the gloomy days don't help. My mother is also convinced my (long dead) father is away with another woman and her kids somewhere - I sometimes wonder if I have some half siblings that no one ever told me about! Also worrying about me having drunken nights with some lads next door (if only I had the energy). and been banging on the neighbour's wall through the night, but so far they haven't complained. She seems to have gone downhill rapidly in the last couple of months - she still knows I'm her daughter but sometimes mistakes me for one of her sisters. She doesn't really know where she's living anymore, but she manages to potter about, make herself a drink and get herself washed and dressed most days. She tolerates the carers coming in but won't let them help her apart from getting her something to eat and drink. It's strange how you learn to accept all the changes that happen and having to expect the unexpected all the time. But I just wonder how long we can all go on like this, how long can she stay on her own. Doc put her back on the anti-psychotics so she's now spaced out but calm again (hate these drugs and feel so guilty giving them to her knowing how drowsy they make her feel). I keep telling myself it's better than being anxious and agitated but there must be a better way. I must admit I'm finding it harder to cope at work now, I could always lose myself in my job, like a kind of therapy,, but it must be the stress or tiredness (or age) but I just can't focus on much anymore. I feel like I;m just going through the motions each day. And there's no point in planning anything because she takes up all my time now - it's like trying to run two lives at the same time. Maybe it's a good job I haven't got time to stand still and think where has my mother gone.