If I could add anything to what you said.. it would be amen!.. or good for you!.. ALL is PERFECT.. the lesson or the situation, the Choice is ours sometimes.. and your heart is in the right place.. have good days ahead, keep a small tape recorder with you at all times might be fun to hear the old stories one more time, or the old memories come alive.. cellphones work well for that.. build memories and treasure your own strength and desires for fairness. It is all we have.. but some of the best times are ahead.. you have her for a while.,. and that is good.
  

Thank you all, wonderful group of people, for your sympathies.  I will be heading out by Amtrak Sunday 2 am for CA to be with my family.  It will take 3 days to get there.  I swore off flying years ago.  Used to love it.  We will have a service on the 15th.  My husband and son will hold down the fort and the business.  My family (children and grandchildren) here in NC will not be able to go.  We had our own service here this evening.  It was sweet.

Goldie, my heart goes out to you for the loss of your long-time dear friend.

I feel for all you who have relatives with Alzheimer’s.  Please stay strong and take care of yourselves so you can take care of them.

Like Maukik my mother did not have Alzheimer’s, she had dementia and a stroke.  She remembered my son to the end.

Maukik, I’m so sorry for your double loss of Mother and Mother-in-law so close together.

Last year a friend of mine died at 59 of Alzheimer’s.  I can’t recall how many years he had it.  It was very hard on his family to see this intelligent man, who taught college, go down like this.  His wife said that he’d forget that he quit smoking and demand a cigarette.

((((HUGS))) to all who need them.

So we've just come back from almost three weeks home (Aruba, Aruba is home, Netherlands is temporary home) with mom as our guests. Boy, I'm exhausted emotionally.

Mom kept saying she's fine, yes, she forgets things once and a while (duh!) but only the not important stuff. Not true of course because she forgets very important stuff, like her financial affairs. I think it's important to know where my money goes, she can't remember the last time she spent money. She kept accusing me of making stuff up and lying which resulted in a blow out from my side, which ended with the "famous" words... "and that's why were going to the doctor tomorrow". Unfortunately doctor couldn't do much (especially since he doesn't know her at all), but suggested to see a neurologist, since Alzheimer is visible on brain scans. Mom promised me that she would go to her doctor once back in Holland. I hope she doesn't forget.

One thing I did notice, she tires very quickly and if I didn't make her breakfast and/or lunch (hubby always cooks dinner) she didn't eat. I asked why and she always said she didn't feel like eating, wasn't hungry, and yet she has gained weight the last few months. So I grabbed my "thyroid solution" book and started reading. It helped me tremendously when I was struggling with my thyroid issues and I read that when someone has a borderline thyroid condition (in Mom's case hypothyrodism) for a longer period of time, it can cause mental inbalance and cause symptoms that resemble dementia. It also causes emotional imbalance (Mom reacted very aggressive at times, very unusual for her). And frankly this explanation makes a lot of sense. So I will see to it that her thyroid hormones as well as her TSH are being checked.

For the rest hubby and I tried to have her be as busy as possible, which is very difficult when someone complains that they are so tired all the time. At the end I was able to let it go a bit more and not keep me awake at night anymore, so I did enjoy some of my vacation after all.

It's been hard and we are nowhere near the end of this story yet, but aunt (Mom's younger sister) and I are determined to get her to a doctor asap and we'll take it from there.

It's so tough.  Technically I don't know that my mother's memory loss is "Alz." but the neurologist that we saw said it was.  She had a couple of TIAs that I'm aware of back in the early 90s and then things went downhill from there.  She does take thyroid pills and I brought her to an endocrinologist  at one point thinking that maybe she was more hypothyroid than she was being treated for.  Her progression has been relatively slow.  She does know me most of the time and she has periods of time when she's more alert than others. She's definitely "in the moment" and doesn't seem to remember that my father passed away.  At her more lucid moments she asks to go home and doesn't understand that she lives in a facility.  She's been incontinent for many years now and typically "sundowns," i.e., up a lot of the night walking up and down the hall and very sleepy during the day.  My mother was always the epitome of the "perfect lady."  Great table manners, everything very Emily Post.  Now she puts her hands in her food, etc.  It's very hard to watch.

sad indeed

I am going through the same with my mother at the moment. I will post more later. It can be very hard. She has not been diagnoised with dementia, but has had a couple of tia's.
As with SandraAruba's mother she has had thyroid problems which were not diagnosed for years even though now that a look at photo's the goitre was always visible (she had at least 10 in patient visits in this time and not one doctor spotted this).
She also suffers from 'heart failure' (a term that I hate as it seems to be a cop out for doctors for all heart problems). She has weight gain problems but this is usually massive water retention due to the heart not beating correctly. Her last visit to hospital she was put on strong diuretics and lost 8 kilograms in 11 days.
I have found this thread very interesting as I recognise so many of the symptoms the rest of the posters have mentioned. I will studyin more detail.

When my mother stopped 2 ultra light pills a week of HRT, Hormonal replacement therapy, she had thyroid problems and she was spaced out., three or four years later we discovered it was Alzheimer. The thyroid connection is to study better for me and the HRT is well known as a protection for dementia!

Just wondering if there are any exercises that you have to help the elderley with improving their memory? I saw a thread alright about web surfing, but my mother was always a bit of a technophobe

Quoted from greenman

Just wondering if there are any exercises that you have to help the elderley with improving their memory? I saw a thread alright about web surfing, but my mother was always a bit of a technophobe

I bought my mom a nintendo DS with brain training, but she doesn't want to go near it. Now I know why... because it's all just too complicated for her. I took it with me this trip and whenever I would turn it on an get her to the first exercise she would use it. It's really quite simple to use, but somehow she doesn't want it, so now I use it.

Anyway, the braintraining game really is quite simple to use and I do believe it helps one organize their thoughts and think more logical again. So perhaps your mom can try it.


Another thing that happened during our vacation is I gave her my B12 vitamins because it helps improving memory. When we left I saw it on the night stand in her room and asked if she wasn't taking that. She said "that's not mine!" Yes, it is, I gave it to you... sigh...

Today is her 75th birthday and auntie talked her into celebrating. I tried to get her to think about how and when she wanted to celebrate while on vacation, but she didn't want to hear/think about it. I think auntie made the decision for her and said "that's what we are going to do".

web site called  itsyourturn.com  has many games to choose from, that came keep the mind stimulated.  I like to play scrabble, and they have a game, they refer to as
Jamble, also wild jamble and open jamble,  for free your allowed 15 moves per game, so you can play with many different people and have loads of fun communicating at the same time.

crossword puzzle is also great exercise
thanks for the tip!   itsyourturn.com

from a research perspective, this is interesting.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/214418.php