Mt mother's memory cache is corrupted

In My Humble Opinion
1

literally.

she is 71 and always had a lot of snap. But her short term memory has me totally freaked out. I have noticed the downward trend, but this week was pretty spectacular.

She really struggles with the very short term. Like a conversation of small talk, such as the train crash in Philly. I commented that he was going 106 on a 50mph curve when it flipped the tracks. she was astonished and gasped, commenting “isn’t that manslaughter?”

this came up because the evening news discussed it. The next half hour program, the local news, re-aired a segment on the event. She again asked if anyone knew what caused the wreck. I said he was speeding. She was once again astonished.

As I was leaving, we were discussing being safe, and she again asked what went wrong in that recent train crash. I said again, calmly, he was speeding. She asked if we had heard how fast. “106 in a 50,” i repeated for at least the third time. she gasped, astonish.

the next day I went to see her. She asked me if I had heard the Amtrak deal was due to the engineer speeding? I said yes. She asked if they ever said how fast? 106, I said for the 'nth time.

my dad is sharp-minded–he struggles with names, dates, company names from time to time, barely at all worse than me. He will get stuck on a specific entity in an information rich conversation (like forgetting what we are calling the rebel factions in Iraq this week). He’ll forget the name of the PG for the Warriors who won the MVP. For 72 he seems mentally stable. He spends most of the time in extreme exasperation because not only won’t she remember things, she’ll belligerently argue events with him because she can’t remember it happened that way.

But her, she will ask us to take her to Olive Garden then get grumpy when we pull into the parking lot because she thinks she said another place.

Her mother died of Alzheimer. I am pretty worried.

How can i investigate what might be wrong? are there tests? do I need to speak to a specific kind of doctor to confirm? How does a son proceed?

2

Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

3

Not a physician, and way out of my depth. But having dealt with a grandparent through slow deterioration, I can say this much:

OK, first look at hydration. If she’s getting dehydrated, her short-term memory will tend to fail for lack of resources.

There may be other dietary deficiencies.

Other than that, yeah, could be age-related dementia. It happens.

4

First doctor to call would be her GP, usually. The exceptions would be if for some reason she had someone else who is her PCP (for example, I know people with diabetes whose primary doctor is an internist).

5

Sounds just like my mother, who is now about 7 years into her long slide into dementia. She should definitely see her regular doctor, and probably a neurologist. They can test her for certain treatable physical problems that can cause the symptoms. If those tests are negative, then it’s probably Alzheimer’s. My mom takes Namenda and uses the Excelon patch, and those seemed to slow the progression of the disease for quite some time.

A bit off topic, but relevant: If your parents haven’t already done so, they should execute power of attorney documents, to give each other POA in case of disability, with you as the contingent POA. My dad died two months ago, and having that in place was a big help to me as I settled their affairs and moved my mom into long term care.

Best of luck to you and your mom and dad - dementia sucks.

6

I would suggest you also spend some time looking at assisted living homes or in-home care in your area. There’s also good advice that can be found at your local federal/state Area Agency on Agency. This is a national program funded by the feds your state and local charities. Ours has professional social workers and does not charge, They gave me good advice.

You may also want to monitor her medications. My mother was taking her meds willy-nilly because of her memory issues. Once I got her into assisted living where an LPN handled the meds, she gradually got better. Sadly, the underlying defect in her memory that made her take her meds willy nilly was still there, but she improved.

7

Should be Area Agency on Aging. How’s your very short term memory? :slight_smile:

Otherwise superb advice.

8

I knew something was up with my mom last time they came to visit. She couldn’t retain the directions to the bathroom here and we only have ~1000 square feet.

Within four years, she had progressed to forgetting her husband’s identity and would ask Dad to go bring him home.

Within six, she was gone.

9

I’d blame auto-correct but SMDB doesn’t have it.

10

Jesus. That quickly, huh? Brutal.

11

I’m going to have to discuss it with my dad and figure out how to proceed. I think they both want to pretend it’s just natural age related memory loss, but it’s not. Having the same conversation three times in an hour or so is a little extreme. I noticed things slipping a few years ago, but it’s to the point steps need to be taken. My father and I discussed it, and he’s well aware it’s getting worse, but she still doesn’t realize it’s an issue.

Thanks everyone.

12

Sounds like my aunt, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Within 45 minutes, she would ask me 3 times where I was working now, and forget the answer. But she could remember all about her work as a cook/phone operator for the crews building the ALCAN highway & the DEW line across Alaska & Canada in the 1940’s & 50’s. And she could recall details, like what menu items the workers preferred, etc.

13

They almost never do.

The brain is amazing at “patching over” its faults. And it’s not just dementia. A lot of people with quite severe mental illnesses are in denial about their condition.

Losing track of recent memories is an early sign of dementia. (As it gets worse, older and older memories start to go.) Just about the only good news is that it comes in a lot of varieties and a few are treatable. You can’t diagnose and treat her. Only a specialist can. That’s step one.

14

That’s SDMB. Or have I been whooshed? :slight_smile:

15

That would depend on what the underlying cause is, and as for the second well, it also varies.

My paternal grandmother started having memory / visual recognition issues less than 18 months before she died, but in her case the issue was ischemias: the big one took her. My maternal grandfather had ischemias for about three years but they affected a different area: he never had any memory or visual recognition issues, in his case it was manual dexterity that was affected and except for the big one that took him, he always recovered above 90%.

I know people who have had null short memory for over a decade but who are otherwise healthy. It is usually very painful for the relatives, but the advantage is that once a person becomes vaguely-known to the patient, they can leave that person in care of grandma and go speak with the doctor (after more than a year of my maternal grandmother being in the old folks’ home, my family counts as “vaguely known” for a surprising amount of grandmas).

16

Like a stroke?

One of my siblings had a mild stroke a few years back even though there’s no history of such things in the family. Now I’m wondering how accurate that was.