Dementia/Alzheimer's signs... could it be something else?

[benjaminty]

Hi All,

I'm hoping someone might have some useful input.

In the last month my sister had an odd moment where my mother failed to recognise her. They had been in a shopping mall for the previous 2 hours and all seemed fine until that point.

From my investigations so far, this might be considered a sign of alzheimers in "moderate" stage, however my mother shows no signs of the "initial" phase such as mood swings, failure of short term memory etc.

My mother spends a lot of time reading, bridge / scrabble etc, socialising and travelling the world all of which should keep the brain engaged and working and perhaps stave off or at least slow down the onset of such diseases.

Has anyone ever heard of or indeed had similiar experiences? Can this be put down to anything else? It's one thing to suspect an issue but to attempt to broach this with my mother will be very tricky and I certainly don't want to suggest going down the route of suggesting any tests etc if I can avoid it at all.

It could easily be alzheimers, it could easily be nothing (I may be clutching at straws).

So my question is - what could cause such a situation that maybe lasted 20 seconds?

[gwod]

This reminds me very much of a story I heard John Suchet tell on Woman's Hour about his wife getting lost at an airport during what turned out to be the early stages of dementia. It is available here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sfhs4

However, I do hope that it was just a vacant moment - very best of luck.

[malleymoo]

There are a whole host of medical reasons that I understand could be behind moments of confusion. My elderly neighbour became quite confused disorientated when she had a urinary tract infection and the GP suggested this was quite common. Maybe it's worth trying to do more general (gentle) questioning about her health at the moment. I can see how tricky it is to broach, a friends mother has been demonstrating a whole host of worrying signs and despite all the family wanting her to go for tests etc, she refuses point blank as she doesn't want to risk the possibility that her fears of alzheimers are confirmed.

[Ramble66]

As Malleymoo said there are a few medical reasons which could cause moments of confusion. Although it is a difficult subject to broach I feel your mum needs to have a chat with her GP. Does she have high blood pressure and/or cholesterol? Any other symptoms? Headaches, dizziness etc?

[benjaminty]

Hi thank you for your input

Yes she does have high blood pressure on occasion. Also has a habit of falling over a lot... not losing consciousness but tripping / slipping up. I've never thought anything of it until now.

[first mate]

Definitely get checked by GP. Mini strokes can cause a variety of temporary neurological problems.

[Ramble66]

Yeah I was thinking possibly transient ischemic attacks (TIA)or a space occupying lesion. My mum collapsed a few months ago and was found to have a benign cyst in her brain. Looking back she had had neurological symptoms over the previous few months but she had explained them away to herself. The cyst was removed and she is now making a full recovery. Get her GP involved. Neurological symptoms are scary but there are often effective treatments but a diagnosis is needed first.

[mrs f]

My grandma had a 'funny turn' as she likes to describe it, it was about 8 years or so ago and she was in her own garden and forgot who she was, forgot all about her family (and she has 5 children and 15 grandchildren so a fairly big family to forget!), had no idea where she was, didn't recognise my grandpa etc. I think it was for about 1/2 hour, but I'm not sure exactly of the details. She was checked over by her doctors but she is absoulutly fine, a very strong and healthy 82 year old, no sign of any problems with her brain, still very bright and has no further episodes.

This is obviously not a medical diagnosis of your mum, but just to say that it might be nothing.... it is obviously worth taking her to get checked out but perhaps sometimes these things do happen?

I hope it all goes well x