How do you know if dementia has progressed?

JessieBella hit right on!!!

Changes are pretty obvious. Sometimes there is a question about whether these new or changed behaviors mean the dementia is progressing or something else is going on. My mother appeared to be much, much worse, until a uti was diagnosed and treated. Then she was back to where she was before the infection. My husband always got cognitively worse with any illness -- cough, constipation, flu, anything at all. But he recovered to his baseline when the condition cleared up.

Big changes should be discussed with the clinic. Maybe a test of some kind is in order (uti, for example). Otherwise you wait and see. As the dementia progresses it will be obvious.

In my experience, my mother 's inability to do really easy things that she used to do without thinking, was a major sign. Like turning the heat down . We don't have a hi tech furnace. Washing clothes. Leaving food out all day, Not being able to write checks. ( every now and then she does though , correctly). Obsession with Fox News. The repitition , the endless repitition. Which is slowly driving me nuts. Then the inability to recal easy words. The inability to comprehend a menu. The sleeping with the lights on and the tv. Total loss of short term memory. Obsession with our dogs. Writing down when I leave and return home. She is 79. She was never like this before

If you are living with someone with dementia, you'll know when there are changes. They are behavioral. They'll forget more and lose sense of time. Things they could once do they forget. This happens one thing at a time. Reasoning ability gets less and less. Then odd behaviors become more common. Water is left running. Sleep behavior changes. Agitation gets worse. There are so many things happening, it's hard to consider them all. You will know when you see them, though, that things are slipping. I think the best advice I've heard is to just stay calm as new things come up. Easier said than done, because all we want is for the odd things to stop.

Here is a link. I found it helpful for looking at what is to come. Just be aware that each person is very different. Most people
show symptoms in 2-3 stages at the same time.
https://www.alzinfo.org/understand-alzheimers/clinical-stages-of-alzheimers/