Yesterday, my mom did not remember anything until 3pm. She "woke up" while making cookies and cleaning the stove. What could cause this?

By any chance, does your mother take Ambien? I ask b/c there are many people who take Ambien who have episodes exactly like your mother has had where they wake up doing something they have no recollection of starting........my DIL woke up spreading peanut butter all over her CAT after taking Ambien one night. True story. Others wake up in the middle of preparing food, eating food, or doing something else they have no memory of starting. Ambien falls under the classification of 'sedative-hypnotic' drugs, so if your mother is taking any medications in that classification, they should be suspect for causing her odd 'sleep walking' episode. You say her doctor 'changed her diabetes meds' also, so that new med should be looked at as suspect as well.

It's ridiculous for laymen here on an internet forum to be diagnosing your mother! She needs to be seen immediately by a qualified doctor, in person, to determine what's going on with her. Anything else anyone tells you, including me, is a mere guess and should be taken with a grain of salt. Like BarbBrooklyn said originally, "A change in mental status (at any age) is a medical emergency. Call her doctor NOW and ask instructions."

Wishing you the best of luck getting a real diagnosis for what's going on with your mom.

"Transient global amnesia is a sudden, "temporary" episode of memory loss that can't be attributed to a more common neurological condition, such as epilepsy or stroke. During an episode of transient global amnesia, your recall of recent events simply vanishes, so you can't remember where you are or how you got there."

"There is no treatment for transient global amnesia (TGA). The condition resolves on its own within 24 hours."

So I read this to mean, exactly what I said, it could be a one time thing.

My Mom was diagnoised with TGA after a head injury. A friend had one because of stress she was under. In both cases, the doctors said its usually a 1x thing. With Mom, she kept asking the same thing over and over. With my friend, she did not remember how she got to work that morning and a few other things.

It looks like an episode of TGA or transient global amnesia. It's usually benign and is not related to stroke. It will require a neurologist consultation though.

This is really a question for MD and it could involve almost anything; his guess is the best guess. I am assuming this hasn't happened before, however you are noticing changes that need to be assessed now for staging purposes. I sure wish you luck and hope you will update us after Mom's checkup.

A change in mental status (at any age) is a medical emergency.

Call her doctor NOW and ask instructions.