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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.

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Update: Went to visit mom today and the nurse stopped me at the front door and said that mom was much worse, confused, not acting herself and the doctor (who saw her today) thinks it is a UTI. They are going to test her today or tomorrow and if it is positive they may have to send her to the hospital for IV treatment. I mentioned TIAs and the nurse said if the UTI test is negative they will have to run other tests to see what's causing this major change in behavior. Mom said she has mild diarrhea, has stopped sleeping as she is afraid "he" was going to kill her, her bed and lamp are "wired," someone is alerting her via the loudspeaker that they are "coming for her" and that her closet houses a special radio that only she and the people she sees can hear. After months of no fear and fewer hallucinations, she is back to a lot of hallucinations and delusions. Mom also said she does want treatment if it is an infection, but does not want treatment if it is cancer. I told her, "The good news is, it's not cancer." She also asked for testing/imaging for her liver (and she remembered what percentage damaged her liver was when they tested it over 7 years ago), and said she is moving out to an apartment or may have to live in a tent somewhere. I reminded her the liver tests were fine and she cannot live in a tent as snakes still exist outdoors and she is terrified of snakes. She did concede that point. I feel like we are right back to where she was over a year ago. She said until she dies she wants to be the one to call the shots regarding her health. I told her if you are hallucinating you don't get to call the shots. She was very indignant. Nothing like a UTI mixed with NPD and Schizophrenia. I told her she could talk to the admin about her wishes (treatment vs. nontreatment for various conditions), but she said she wanted nothing on record because she might at any moment change her mind. I did not tell her they may have to send her to the hospital. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. As I was leaving the very, very sweet activities director came to get mom to do a craft with other residents. I also asked her to take mom outside tomorrow for the concert and homemade ice cream on the lawn and she agreed presuming mom is up for it.
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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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