At the beginning of our journey with my mom - help and advice please. I feel lost with this all.
2 weeks ago my mom (82yo) did the MoCA and scored 16/30. I was there to watch and seeing her not know the year (she said it was 1996), not remember any of the 5 words to repeat back and not know how to count backwards by 7s was so upsetting. After every question she kept saying, “if I fail will you lock me up”. She had an MRI Saturday and a referral to a neurologist.
She had a mitral valve replacement 3 years ago which resulting in an infection and having to repeat the surgery 4 months later. Before the second surgery her surgery said she only had a 3% chance of survival. She made it through but her memory was greatly affected. She had a hard time finding words and her short term memory was poor.
As times gone on, her verbal skills has come back a bit but she her short term memory is terrible. She can’t remember something you just told her. If I make an appointment for her and I tell her when it is she cannot remember when it is 30 seconds later. Sometimes she’ll call me five or six times a day until the appointment to have me tell her when it is.
She now gets lost when she drives (her doctor is taking her license away Thursday - my dad has disconnected the car battery so she can’t drive).
I just found out that two years ago she had a CT scan that showed and it showed she has small vessel ischemia. Her former doctor never told her. We asked about her mom’s memory numerous times and she just said it was from the anesthetic from her heart surgery and never told us the results of the CT scan.
My question is could anything have been done if she’d been sent to a neurologist sooner? Could she have been treated sooner and not have continued to go down hill?
I’m in Calgary Canada, if anyone is from here, I’d love any advice on support groups for me and my dad to care for my dad.