Hello everyone.
My Dad died at the age of 86 four years ago. His cause of death was end-stage dementia and hospital acquired pneumonia. My mum was a lot younger than my Dad. She's now 76. She's very active, outgoing and independent. She was Dad's main carer when he was diagnosed with dementia.
However, my sister and I have both increasingly noticed memory loss. She'll tell us things she's already told us (several times) and, whilst I know that we can all be guilty of this, it's happening a little too often. I have had a nagging feeling that this is more than just 'old age' for a while now, but I guess I've been burying my head in the sand a bit as I remember how things were with Dad and I don't want to think of my Mum suffering in the same way.
The thing that has brought me on here this morning is the phone call I had with her earlier. She is writing out a cheque and couldn't remember that in the box on the right-hand side of the cheque she needs to just put the amount in numbers i.e. £1196.40. She thought she had to put £1000, £100, £96, 40p. I really didn't understand what she was trying to do initially and had to get one of my own cheque books out to see what she was trying to achieve. Now, it could be that, like she says, she's not written a cheque for a while and had a bit of a mental block, but this is not a difficult thing to do and she has done it before.
I rang my sister and she said she'd noticed the frequency of forgetfulness has increased and she thinks that we should encourage her to see a GP (and one of us should go with her). I agree, but I think a dementia diagnosis will devastate her. She's usually really positive and upbeat but, having nursed Dad through it, she will be able to see everything that will potentially be coming her way.
I'm also feeling really scared now. Whilst Dad's dementia and the road to end-stage dementia with him was horrible, he still knew who we all were and knew our names. I'm scared that my Mum might not be like that and might end up not knowing us at all. I don't know how I will cope with this. I'm so close to her and even yesterday was giving me advice and comfort about perimenopause. I know I'm not a kid anymore, but I don't want to lose my Mum before she's even left this life....
I didn't come on here for answers. I think I know that we have to get her to the GP and support her as best we can. I think I just felt that I needed to write down how I'm feeling.
My Dad died at the age of 86 four years ago. His cause of death was end-stage dementia and hospital acquired pneumonia. My mum was a lot younger than my Dad. She's now 76. She's very active, outgoing and independent. She was Dad's main carer when he was diagnosed with dementia.
However, my sister and I have both increasingly noticed memory loss. She'll tell us things she's already told us (several times) and, whilst I know that we can all be guilty of this, it's happening a little too often. I have had a nagging feeling that this is more than just 'old age' for a while now, but I guess I've been burying my head in the sand a bit as I remember how things were with Dad and I don't want to think of my Mum suffering in the same way.
The thing that has brought me on here this morning is the phone call I had with her earlier. She is writing out a cheque and couldn't remember that in the box on the right-hand side of the cheque she needs to just put the amount in numbers i.e. £1196.40. She thought she had to put £1000, £100, £96, 40p. I really didn't understand what she was trying to do initially and had to get one of my own cheque books out to see what she was trying to achieve. Now, it could be that, like she says, she's not written a cheque for a while and had a bit of a mental block, but this is not a difficult thing to do and she has done it before.
I rang my sister and she said she'd noticed the frequency of forgetfulness has increased and she thinks that we should encourage her to see a GP (and one of us should go with her). I agree, but I think a dementia diagnosis will devastate her. She's usually really positive and upbeat but, having nursed Dad through it, she will be able to see everything that will potentially be coming her way.
I'm also feeling really scared now. Whilst Dad's dementia and the road to end-stage dementia with him was horrible, he still knew who we all were and knew our names. I'm scared that my Mum might not be like that and might end up not knowing us at all. I don't know how I will cope with this. I'm so close to her and even yesterday was giving me advice and comfort about perimenopause. I know I'm not a kid anymore, but I don't want to lose my Mum before she's even left this life....
I didn't come on here for answers. I think I know that we have to get her to the GP and support her as best we can. I think I just felt that I needed to write down how I'm feeling.