DM (74) is displaying some behaviours which I'm finding frankly odd. She doesn't seem like my mother at all anymore, but I don't know whether this is normal aging or should I be worrying about dementia.
She doesn't really bother with holding a two way conversation any more, she will only monologue about what she has done that day and what she is planning for the next day. She will say the same stock stories, observations and phrases over and over. We very rarely get a new piece of information.
She is very unsure of things she used to be fine with - online banking, using a computer, communicating with utility providers. She has to check and double check everything with DH and I before she'll do something like make an online payment or cancel a direct debit.
Her memory doesn't seem terrible, but she does forget words mid sentence. She doesnt retain any new information that she is given if it doesn't relate to her daily routine.
This is the one I find most alarming - She shouts one line of a song over and over. She does this at times when the room would otherwise be silent (e.g. if she has got up to make a cup of tea in the empty kitchen). It feels like it's compulsive and is objectively very odd.
She follows an absolutely rigid routine every day - same breakfast and lunch at the same time every day. Same rotation of 5 dinners in the same order. She gets quite agitated if she thinks she won't be able eat at her allotted time.
I can't figure out if she is just getting on, is naturally self-centered (she has form for this) and a bit deaf or whether she has some form of cognitive decline. Does this sound within the range of normal?