Gran Possible Dementia?

margaretclare

Myself and my family think my gran may have dementia, the past two weeks have been really bad. Gran has lost her purse twice and her keys she has taken to calling me by my cousins name and she has been putting stuff in strange places(glasses have been in cutlery drawer bag of flour in wardrobe etc).

My mum has contacted her doctor to let them know what's been happening but they just laughed and said 'Of course she is forgetful, she's old', and would ask the nurse to check her out next visit(6 weeks away).

What patronising rubbish. In other words it is normal to be forgetful if you get old. Absolute and utter tosh.

OK, we can all be forgetful at any age. As in 'Where did I put the car keys?' 'Did you remember to leave a note for the milkman/cancel the papers/top up the bird-feeders/anything else?' before going on holiday.

Being forgetful to the extent that your granny is being forgetful is most definitely NOT normal for her age. As others have said, there must be something else going on. A possible illness or infection is the most obvious that needs to be considered and excluded. A series of mini-strokes can occur during sleep so the person is not even aware of them.

Putting things in weird places - yes, that reminds me of my late MIL back in the 1970s. Alzheimer's wasn't event mentioned then.

Another symptom could be a complete change of personality - a previously smart and well-turned out lady starts to be neglectful of personal hygiene, from being smart becomes scruffy. Wearing wrong clothes or clothes on inside out, odd shoes, those kind of things.

terrierlady

i had ago at the test,:rolleyes: the deduction one foxed me..... my husband too is forgetful but he runs his own business and sometimes stress can account for strange things happening.good luck with your gran its everyones worse nightmare that it will happen to anyone of us one day

Cacran

My Mum has dementia. she is in a care home and has been for 18 months.

It took a long time to have her condition diagnosed, in fact I do not think they ever actaully believed how bad she was.

For a number of years I had noticed her character changing but though perhaps it was because she was getting older. She always saw good in people but began to get a bitter streak.

I noticed that she was dwelling on all sorts of things and the tales were getting exagerated and changed. Ebventually I asked my Dad and brother what they thought. Typical of men, they had not really noticed too much but when we all got together, they realised what I said was right.
My mum kept losing keys, forgetting to lock doors, turn fire off, leavbing gas on but unlit. It became a danger. My dad began trying to keep her in the house and she wanted to get out.

Dad saw the doctor who confirmed that she had a water infection and they though that was the problem. she continued gettign water infections which detracted from the real problem. Eventually I wrote to her doctor, telling him how I felt. He phoned me and we had a chat. He had my parents in and mum was gven a basic memory test. She did quite well with it. They kept making apppointments with my mum and eventually, I think they began to agree with me. she was refered to a specialist. He was very sceptical, I think he was under the impression that mums condition was exagerated. By this time she was really away with the fairies and very difficult for dad to deal with.They did get her some help with her, getting her up in the morning, dressed and bathed and later, help getting her to bed.

One night my dad phoned in distress, he said he was going to kill her then himself. At this point things had to change. I made a point of making it clear to the authorities that Mum needed to be in a home.

Three days was all we had to wait before she was admitted to a council run care home. Social Worker was not best pleased. she said my dad was refusing to care for my mum. Basicallyin reality, my dad was unable to meet her needs.

The care home staff recognised straight away that Mum needed to be in there, she was worse than a lot of the other residents. I a happy to say that she is well looked after, the home is as nice as it could be and they are very kind to her. she is as happy as she can be. Her condition deteriorates at a fast rate but she knows us but is incapable of reading, cannot really follow what is on TV but enjoys music.

My mum was a very intelligent woman who was very computer literate, did accounts for local community centre, spoke a number of languages, had worked in some very responsible areas and was always active.

It is so sad to see a loved one cave in but that is what has happened and there is nothing we can do about it.

It was such a relief when mums problem was acknowledged.

dirtyflannel

My Gran was about 85 when strange things started happening. She was repeatedly going for her pension sometimes 5 or 6 times a day to the post office. She was lovely but her personality changed and she accused everyone of taking silly things like all her left shoes.

Mojisola

Cacran wrote: »

My Mum has dementia. she is in a care home and has been for 18 months.

It took a long time to have her condition diagnosed, in fact I do not think they ever actaully believed how bad she was.

This is very common. It took me ages to get Mum's problems recognised by the GPs. They were far more willing to base their decision on how she was for five minutes in front of them than listen to everything my Dad and I were telling them.

dianasnan

I was asked by a community psychiatric nurse to keep a diary of everything my Mum did and said that was unusual during a 2 month period. We were taken seriously after that and she was properly assessed,scanned and diagnosed with Vascular dementia.
The diary was useful as you would never remember half the things she got up to afterwards.

The worst bit is when you know there is a problem but have difficulty persuading the authorities. Many people with early dementia can hold it together for 5 to 10 mins in public and only let things slip for close relatives.