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Mom (86) is over her UTIs (two in about a month), but is forgetting nouns and is slowing down quite a bit and has been for months. She cannot keep up with what day of the week it is, forgets nouns, doesn't know what some basic things are. She tries to explain things to me, but doesn't know how to and gets confused. Sometimes she seems more her old self and remembers things from the previous days and from years past. We are 2 and 1/2 years into her memory care journey and when she was admitted the geriatric doctor said she did not think mom had dementia. Another geriatric doctor from the psych ward said the same thing. Her vision and hearing are also getting worse, but the facility said they have an appointment for her with a vision specialist. Sometimes I can't tell if she is unable to hear me or unable to process what I'm saying. Sometimes she seems to understand what I said and respond appropriately. She remembered I missed seeing her twice in two months, but can't remember where her family photos are. One thing that is very comforting is she is much, much calmer now. A year ago if another patient tried to enter her room she would yell at them and grow very angry. Today she just calmly told the woman to leave. Dementia is a whole new road for us as all her siblings died in old age without any signs of dementia. The fact that it is for her apparently calming and not scary (so far) is a great relief. I don't think the changes are just from the UTIs, so I'm assuming she is going to continue to lose ground.

Mom's mom did have TIAs for years before her massive stroke weeks before her 91st birthday. I'll do some research on what to look for and see if anything else matches. With Granny she just slowed down a lot, her balance was not too great, but was still dressing and feeding herself, walking without a cane, reading and crocheting right up to the stroke. She even started bowling at 90. Mom at 86 is in a lot worse shape than Granny was at 90.
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My husband's friend in Memory Care will start a sentence, and it will have a word in it; for instance, "dog." He might say that he loves to play with his dog. By the time he gets to the second part of the sentence or the second sentence, he can remember "dog" but has totally lost the context. The next sentence might come out of nowhere after long hesitation, something like "after lunch I should go sit in my dog." He knows he started talking about the dog and should fit it in, and he's looking perplexed. So he tosses in any old thing, substituting the appropriate word, which presumably should be "room," with "dog." Dementia can be so interesting, but of course, always sad.
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Sounds like aphasia (forgetting nouns specifically) and may be from TIAs.
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