Time shifting

My Mom has done the exact same thing. One day out of the blue asked me about a neighbor that she had - when she was in high school. During the same conversation asked me if I had met her Dad. He passed well before I was born. I have noticed that my Mom has more difficulties around sleep/wake transitions and sometimes doesn’t know if something was a dream or real. She will sometimes wake herself up responding to something in a dream and believe that it’s real.

At this point, I honestly have no idea what ‘stage’ she’s in. She was at or below the 1st percentile for the majority of her neuro cognitive areas of assessment. She was not able to follow or understand the instructions for a fair number. The summary indicated that she has severe cognitive impairment across multiple domains. She’s continent, feeds herself, bathes herself, dresses herself (sometimes in things that don’t go together), reads, does her own meds, goes to the gym and washes her own clothes (whether or not they reliably get detergent is another matter). She didn’t know how to use the salt grinder that we’ve had for 20+ years though. She’s been here for 6 months and I drive her places multiple times per week. She doesn’t recognize my car in the parking lot. She tries to put visibly dirty dishes away regularly. I have really started to notice how impaired her short term memory is in the last 2 weeks or so. Non-existent most of the time. As recently as maybe 2 months ago, I didn’t think that she had any issues in that area. Her issues had been limited to word finding, logic, reasoning and math. She hasn’t been able to do serial subtraction at all for over 2 years. My Mom always loved to cook and not being able to follow a recipe was one of the first tip offs that something was amiss.

I tried to pin down the neuro psychologist to a stage after reading the report. Literally asked him on a scale of normal, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, moderate dementia, severe dementia where is she? His response was one of exclusion - she’s walking, talking, she can read so she doesn’t have severe dementia. She’s definitely in the moderate stage though. I thought that was interesting in that her cognitive impairment is considered severe.

Here's the DBAT document that will help you determine the Stage. If she has any behavior in a Stage, that's the Stage she's in.

DBAT: https://us.v-cdn.net/6037576/uploads/B0XGDF5TALMA/dbat-287-29-281-29.pdf

I don’t mind the suggestion at all - thank you. Interfering with her medication is one of the few things that makes her agitated. It’s nothing short of bizarre. She has a pill box for the week with daily compartments. 1st thing every morning she takes her meds for the day. She then immediately refills the compartment. Every day - completely defeating the purpose of a weekly pill box. I peek inside to make sure that the right meds are in there every couple of days or so. She does it in the kitchen at the table before she eats her breakfast where I can see her take them and refill the compartment. As crazy as it makes me, I’m just not going to fight that battle. And am willing to accept the consequences of a screw up that escapes detection. There is such a balance between letting her hang onto a sliver of independence and protecting her at all costs. I suspect the day will come soon enough that the task needs to be managed more closely.