mid-stage dementia

i had tea with bee earlier and related to him about mum's health recently and explained to him that the behaviour she had displayed is commonly known as sundown syndrome. and as i describe, i googled about it. and i learned that 20% of patients with alzheimer's display symptoms of sundown syndrome. it also said such symptoms are clear signs of mid-stage dementia. i didn't really take the word "mid-stage" seriously cos i had the perception that a mid-stage dementia patient would be totally not capable of any logical thinking and would be in an almost vegetative state. 

and at my brother's place, my brother made a comment that my mum's memory had deteriorated so badly that she forgot she ate a packet of oyster omelette for lunch. to me, i wasn't surprise cos it had become a common thing for me. but hearing it from my brother, it struck me that i might have not observe the gradual change. 

and when i drove her home from my brother's place later, she told me she had left her watch at my brother's place. i immediately asked her to give him a call to tell him about it. that was when she told me she couldn't as she had left her handphone at my brother's place. i felt something amiss. it seemed like she had confused her watch for her handphone. and so, i reached out an inserted my hand into her handbag. next thing i knew, i found her handphone. i kept quiet about it and simply asked her to make the call. she looked at me, bewildered, and told me - i don't know how to call. i then asked her to call my sis-in-law instead. again she said - i don't know how to call. apparently, she had forgotten the preset numbers that she had been calling daily. i tested her by asking which number should she press to call me, or my eldest sis... she told me she didn't know.

linking all the recent incidents of increased combativeness, delusions, forgetfulness, confusion, insomnia, etc... it occurred to me that these were the exact signs of a mid-stage dementia patient - just like what i had read earlier. and it hit me. she had eased into mid-stage dementia without me even realising it. frankly, i felt rather ambivalent. on one hand, it was the "ok, it's here finally" sense of regret yet on the other hand, i felt a sense of relief. hmmm, i don't know how to describe. what has to come has already arrived. let's see how long she'll be in this state before she totally forgets about people around her.

hmmm...