I had some concerns about my mother since last year. I have a list of observations about her.
There was an incident where she fled the house to go into the city by walking to the bus stop but there was torrential rain outside. I thought it could have waited til a better day. She came home from town and said she was bored. I thought it was weird. That's all. It wasn't a day for town.
It was this incident where I began to piece together other things.
She was dealing with a solicitor but she ignored his instruction to call him. I have since found out, only in recent weeks, she was ignoring him for the past year.
There were episodes where she was mute to me. No talk of conversation from her. For example I could get up in the morning or when she gets up, there wasn't even a 'good morning' from her. There were times when she left the house without even talking to me or without telling me where she was going. I found it so odd.
There were times when she would hear a vehicle drive up the drive and she would run up the hall, almost as if to hide and it was only the postman.
I caught her eavesdropping.
There were episodes for anger from her that made no sense and I was left absolutely broken.
She had no comprehension on some matters on public health. She laughed at the social distancing. She refused to wear masks properly. She coughs and sneezes into the open and even there were times she coughed over my cooking and my meals.
I think there were some episodes of paranoia and OCD too.
I began to piece together these little bits and I began thinking and wondering if maybe there was a dementia brewing.
Then in April of this year I found out that she had stolen items of my underwear and my suspicions were strengthened. I was horrified. As the weeks progressed, I found more of my bras and knickers amongst her laundry. Something new I am noticing lately is that whenever she washes her laundry she hangs some stuff out on the line but within a matter of a short while, she removes all the underwear into her room to continue drying her bedroom. Almost as if she is paranoid that I ama stealing her underwear and bras and I am not.
I mentioned my concerns to our GP. We attend the same practice. At one of my appointments I mentioned my concerns. The gp tapped into my mothers chart and she saw some issues straight away. She was supposed to go back over a matter a few months ago and then there was another issue too. She GP was concerned too at that stage.
The gp rang her for an 'over 65s assessment' or something or another and invited my mother for an appointment. That was a few months ago. My mother is due to go back again soon for another appointment. I am so nervous. I don't know what happened at the last appointment and I don't know what's in store from here. I hope I am wrong about dementia but there's something not right.
Then throughout May and June there were some other issues. My mother became very stressed and she told me some tales that were quite questionable but I just nodded my head and replied innocently to her. I didn't question her or argue with her on this or other matters.
How will I know what the process is going forward and if dementia is at play or not.