Reply to What is the trajectory for this type of dementia?

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[quote=Anonymous]My mom is 84 and for the past 8 years has had steadily declining short term memory.  It's now to the point that she will forget what we spoke about 10 minutes ago, and she is cloudy with certain long term memories too.  She has forgotten how my dad died, for example.

She still knows me and her immediate family members.  Her cognitive abilities are still good, she reads and plays on the computer.  She has been making other slight cognitive mistakes (for example, she thought there were 10 animals in the Chinese Zodiac instead of 12.)  She no longer cooks or drives at all.

The thing is, my mom has severe medical anxiety and has for her entire life.  There was a very traumatic event in her childhood and even when she was a successful adult, she has often refused to see a doctor. (Including when she broke her arm and refused to let any family members see her arm for two whole days after she broke it.)  As a result, none of my siblings or me has wanted to force her to see a doctor about her dementia.

If you took care of a parent with similar short term memory loss, can you describe how the dementia progressed?  Is emotional/cognitive decline inevitable as well?  I will say, it has been a blessing that while my mom was not an easy going person when she had her memory, right now, her dementia is difficult but has mellowed her personality and she has become a lot sweeter and easy going.

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