What is going on?

[angel1]

Hi, This is my first post so please excuse me if I seem to 'go on a little to much' I will try to keep it brief.
Mum was diagnosed with AD almost 2 years ago and is still living at home with the help of myself,brother and sister and although without a doubt Mum has changed so much,we still all manage to have a laugh occasionally and although Mum no longer goes out alone she will go shopping or visit the local cafe if she's with one of us.
So all in all 'at the moment' things are manageable, not perfect but ok.
For the past couple of months her sleeping pattern has changed (sleeping more throughout the day, but then still managing to sleep well at night) her doctor has said that this is not a problem and that people as they age soemtimes sleep more, also her appetite (which has always been poor) is now pretty non-existent. She will now only snack on small amounts of foods that she likes, but will not entertain eating a complete meal on a plate.
Yesterday when I visited her she opened the door to me and said 'Hello how did you know that I would be here? (This was a different type of question as she has normally known she is in her own home) I wasnt 100% sure how to answer this as she then proceeded to go around the house looking at all her things saying that 'its very strange that they have all the same things as I have in my house I was so upset as I could see the confusion on her face and would have loved to have taken it away from her so I said to her calmly 'Mum where do you think you are? and she looked at me before laughing and said 'I dont know'..
My brother when he came back said she had started with this line of questioning at about 6am (who's house it it, who are you?) but said that as the day went on she gradually seemed to realise again 'until I arrived that is'.
Do you think that perhaps she has moved to a different stage of the dreaded AD and do you think the sleeping pattern was a warning that this was on its way, or is it me being my normal paranoid self. Any feedback will be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[loveahug]

Hi angel, how distressing for you, it's quite bewildering when these things happen suddenly. Have you had her checked for a UTI (urinary tract infection), these are well known for creating sudden downward turns.

My best wishes to you all

PS and a very warm welcome to TP, I love it here, everyone is so lovely and I hope you find it helpful

 

[Navara]

You do get these weird days as the disease progresses I'm afraid.

We've found things like that might happen once then not again in quite the same way, for a long time, if ever.

It seems like lots of thing happen along the way and its only when you look back you start to join the dots and realise this is an illness that can come on slowly over a very long time.

 

[FifiMo]

Hiya Angel,

It is interesting that you mention your mum sleeping more as well at this incident. With my mother we noticed that she was exactly the same as yours and started asking the same questions too. What we noticed however was that if she had been sleeping and had woken up to something out of the ordinary, say you being at the door, the her brain was no longer able to react quickly enough when waking up and this coupled with something out of the norm just added to the confusion. What we ended up doing was not making a fuss of it and we would just say something like you've been sleeping again haven't you and give her a few minutes to get her bearings. Normally having a cuppa and just a relaxed chat was enough for her to get her stride.

Don't make a big issue of it as it might cause it to become a big issue for her and cause her to become distressed.

Hope this helps,

Fiona

 

[chris53]

Hello Angel, a warm welcome to Talking Point, sorry you have need for us but glad you are here, we cannot help but worry about our loved ones, I tell myself off at times when i cant sleep because all sorts of worries about mum, but she is safe and well, only she is in what seems to be a different world a lot of the time and she has changed so much, so I just go with the flow especially when some days she seems really weird and I think - oh no the downward slope - then she is back to her old "different" self please don't worry too much about mum not having a proper meal a lot of older people even without dementia don't go for proper meals, just tiny snacks and it then seems like they have not had much but that is deceiving food tastes tend to change,even more so with this illness, sweet stuff seems to tempt! the GP could give mum Ensure drinks if you are worried she will not eat. Do please keep on posting whenever you want, day or night someone is always around here Best wishes - Chris x

 

[angel1]

Hi angel, how distressing for you, it's quite bewildering when these things happen suddenly. Have you had her checked for a UTI (urinary tract infection), these are well known for creating sudden downward turns.

My best wishes to you all

PS and a very warm welcome to TP, I love it here, everyone is so lovely and I hope you find it helpful

Thank you so much for replying to me so quickly, I only hope you get this reply and I dont hit the wrong button and send it sailing into the wilderness somewhere.

Thanks again and take care.

 

[at wits end]

My other Nanna (not the current one, but one who passed years ago) used to say that she had spent yesterday (always yesterday) in Peterborough, she'd laugh and say 'they put my whole room on the train and i woke up in Peterborough and then they put it all back on the train and here I am again!'.

I was only a teenager back then but even then I used to just say 'really? that must have been a lovely outing for you'.

my current gran is always a little bit shot away if you wake her, but gets better after a few minutes and a cuppa.

I think a cuppa is always the answer...