{"id":303,"date":"2016-02-23T20:58:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T20:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.memo24.net\/blog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2025-08-12T07:53:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T07:53:31","slug":"a-glimpse-down-the-dementia-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/memo24.net\/blog\/2016\/02\/a-glimpse-down-the-dementia-road\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glimpse Down the Dementia Road"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>\n\nA guest post by Vicki Tapia.<\/pre>\n
It\u2019s difficult to say for sure when Mom\u2019s dementia symptoms actually began, but certainly long before they were evident to any of the extended family. My parents lived in another town, 2 hours away, and that distance provided a type of disguise for her cognitive decline. It took several years before I began to put 2 and 2 together. Sure, there were the odd behaviors of forgetting certain things such as how to correctly follow a recipe, what an eggbeater is used for or how to send email on her computer. I simply attributed it to old age, the stress of taking care of Dad (who had Parkinson\u2019s disease) or plain old forgetfulness. The day Mom didn\u2019t recognize her granddaughter standing before her, however, was probably the day my uncertainty took root. That was when I began to have vague suspicions there was something more nefarious happening to Mom\u2019s brain beyond simple \u201cold age.\u201d Even so, it took yet another year beyond that incident before she was finally evaluated. And, by then, the diagnosis was already moderate <\/em>Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s not uncommon to miss clues of cognitive decline when someone we love acts in ways that go beyond normal aging. And when we do observe behaviors out of the ordinary, we often normalize or simply deny there may be an issue. If you\u2019re close to someone who displays any of the following symptoms, it\u2019s worth a medical evaluation.<\/p>\n