Im not in any way trying to be offensive Foxy...but you could take it to Jesus.
I attend pentecostal christian churches where theres moves of The Holy Spirit and healings. The pastor and the elders lay on hands in The Spirit and the restorations and freedoms come. Perhaps you might consider it for the future. After 25 years as a born again christian I find that prayer is the key to everything. It shifts everything from illness to addiction through to corrupt politicians.

Hi Foxy,

I just wanted to add one more thing about denial.

You can lose body parts and still feel yourself, but we are our memories, and when they start slipping, we start slipping. Faced with the *possibility* (remember, there's been no diagnoses yet and her lapses may still yet be a B12 deficiency) of an illness like dementia, denial is maybe the best approach.

Research shows that with people with advanced dementia — when they are having delusions that it is 1950, for example — are best indulged. People with advanced dementia can often think their children are their siblings (or even their parents). As I understand it, while it's terribly painful for those who love them, it is less painful for the person with dementia if you don't confuse them further and simply go along with it.

Basically, I'm trying to say that while it's difficult for you that your mum is in denial, and you need to get a proper diagnoses, it's a defense mechanism that she probably needs right now, and could be the best thing for her.

Foxy,

My thoughts are with you and your loved one.

Ask your GP or Specialist about Resperidone. Can help senile seniors, especially if they are inclined towaes agitation at times. I need to look into this for my father-in-law (89) too.

Don't be freaked-out by some of the drug's "other" uses relating to psychotics. It as many uses.

I can (and shouldn't give you any further details). It has been almost thirty years since I studied Neuropharmology and Behaviour in a Pych. degree at Sydney Uni. Ask a doctor. Don't assume your GP is a specialist.

Best wishes,

O.

Just a note for us all.I've been feeling a lot better since being on a course of vitamin amd mineral supplements.Don't forget omega 3and omega 6.You have to buy high quality products.New studies show that Ginko Biloba is just as good as some of the drugs used to maintain our mental capacities.Again it has to be high quality.

Do your own research on the net Foxy and don't just take advice from one specialist as being gosple.The new drugs and improved nuitrition can at a mininum,slow the process considerably.

I wish you and your mother well.

To All of You, a very heartfelt Thank-You for your advice.

I've taken everything on board.

I managed to get through to a Counsellor at - 'Alzheimer's Australia Vic.' who gave me some very sound advice - (more or less along the lines that you have been giving me).

The Counsellor, told me to ask my GP about 'Respedal' (?) and 'Aricept,' tablets.

I will be ringing my mum's eye specialist (Thanks David - for your advice) - because her eyesight has deteriorated - and she is still
driving - so that is a concern.

And I have made an appointment with her GP to discuss all these iissues,
aand get a referral for mum to a specialist - (to have her tested).

The Omega series of vitamins - sound like a good idea as well.

Again, Thanks everyone - for your inputs. They have helped me a great deal.

Just a last note: if it does turn out to be dementia don't get too fed up about it. I've written about Phyl (my mother) before. She got this hideous illness.

BD spoke about his father and yep! You just gotta see the funny side sometimes. In the early days sometimes Phyl would have periods of lucidity and we would shriek with laughter together at the things she had said or done.

Later though when it took over completely I would get some comfort out of talking with others who had been through it and we would do the same: - relate to each other the funny side. Its not disloyal (at least, I don't think so). They are in it with you and understand that you have to have a release valve.

Probably others are correct and its simply some easily correctable vitamin deficiency. If by any chance it turns out not to be there are many support clubs around and they really are helpful. Carrying what one could come to regard as a "burden" around on one's own can be debilitating. Besides, laughter releases endorphins which are healthy things and reduce your own chance of illness!

ps. Once, on an overseas flight Phyl (who always thought big anyway) was convinced that the CIA was after her and "jumped ship" as it were, at some stopover. I got a phonecall in South Africa to tell me that my mother was being chased around some obscure city with Interpol and the police after her and then I got a call from Phyl herself (aka Mata Hari at this stage) talking out of the side of her mouth and leading them a merry dance. Then I got a call from her minder who had long-distance hysterics over the phone to me. And THEN my youngest sicked up into the phone from my arms.

All part of life's rich pageant.