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karbar Asked January 2018

When my mother watches tv with me, she hears the same thing I do but constantly asks me questions. Is this dementia?

Example: my mother watches tv with me, the character might say, the dog needs surgery because it broke its leg. Within seconds she say, why are they going to operate on the dog? This happens constantly. I am constantly repeating within seconds what what just said on a program we are watching. The other thing she does is ask me for example, is that her husband, what is going to happen, where is the dad, do they have a mom? Why is she doing this? Is this dementia?

freqflyer Jan 2018
karbar, to add to my posting above, regarding the normal sounds that your Mom is hearing. I bet Mom is hearing those sounds at a different level, thus the sounds are different to her, maybe tinny. Therefore, to her, the sounds are quite different.

Best thing to do with Mom's remarks is to agree with her, than trying to correct her. That way it would be more of a win-win, then generating a long going disagreement. You won't want Mom to be afraid if someone is telling her something she said is wrong.

karbar Jan 2018
My aunt, mom's sister in law passed recently and when mom read the obit it read spay aunt was survived by two daughters, Jane Doe and Julie Doe. My mother said there was an error, she said it should read she was survived by a sister Julie Doe, she didn't have a daughter Julie. I explained and explained she did have the two daughters and tried to get her to name my aunts sisters. She almost got agitated with me and finally said she understood but I question if she did at that moment. Her blood sugar was fine but there was something strangely different. She almost took the wrong insulin the other day if I wouldn't have stopped her. We talked about not eating a whole banana because of her diabetes and as we talked she proceeded to peel a whole banana. I could go on and on.

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jeannegibbs Jan 2018
What other signs of dementia have you noticed?

karbar Jan 2018
She has not been diagnosed with dementia but being a nurse for 40 years I am seeing signs of it. I can make a statement to her clearly and loudly for exp. it's supposed to rain very hard today and seconds later she says, is it suppose to rain tomorrow? I am constantly repeating what I say and I don't think it's a hearing issue. All day I repeat what I say. She is also obsessed with every noise she hears wanting to know what every noise is, like a lawn mower, someone tooting the horn. Everyday noises that she has known all her life she now says, what was that. She can hear the slightest sound so I don't think hearing is an issue.

Midkid58 Jan 2018
Could be the dementia, we really have no idea how someone's brain is "working" with it. Also could be hearing problems. My hubby is mostly deaf and to watch a TV show with him, we MUST have the CC on or I go crazy repeating the dialog to him.

freqflyer Jan 2018
I found for myself I am using the "closed captioning" a lot more than in the past. It is really odd and sometimes funny what my ears are hearing compared to what the person is saying on TV. Now, trying to set up the closed caption is another matter :P

jeannegibbs Jan 2018
That behavior is consistent with dementia behavior, but I don't think that alone would be enough to conclude she has dementia. If she has that diagnosis then I would say that the behavior is likely caused by dementia.

As Glad says, it could also be a hearing problem. If she is concentrating hard to hear some of what is being said she may be missing other things. Have you tried watching things with closed captioning?

BarbBrooklyn Jan 2018
Karbar, I'm confused. Your profile says that your mom has dementia? Has she been diagnosed?

Not being able to follow a story line ( the dog has an injury, it must need some sort of intervention, surgery is a possibility) is pretty typical of dementia patients.

gladimhere Jan 2018
Could be dementia or she may need hearing aids.

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