Mom's ordeal with dementia ended more than a month ago. As I review events in our lives, I come across more early indicators of dementia. Of course, it starts with what seems to be routine forgetfulness - "why did I come in here?"
But there are also changes in personality that are cues that are visible in hindsight. Mom became more emotional about 2-3 years ago. She started hugging and saying "I love you," which she had never done in the previous 80 years. It was nice to think that she was finally becoming more attached to people, but it's also possible that behavior was just part of the rewiring of her brain that was going on. It's more comforting to believe it was the former and not the latter.
After the "why did I come in here" there were incidents with tea kettles boiling dry, forgetting how to operate the microwave, and changes in diet.
Mom was always thin, but as dementia progressed, she stopped eating as much of the few things that she always liked. She started that decline by simply eating less. Over time it got to not eating it at all. In fact, she started exhibiting anorexic behavior, getting down to ~80 lbs (5' 4"). This led her doctors to prescribing drugs simply because their side effects were increased appetite. Within the last 3 months of her life, even those efforts didn't work and she survived on several bottles of Ensure each day. At least she liked those and didn't protest when they were brought to her.
I'll write more about the food issues in future posts.
