Episodes of confusion. Has anyone been through something similar?

There are memory issues associated with normal aging and then there are memory issues not related to normal aging. Nobody on forum can tell you what sort of memory issues your mom is suffering from, only a mini MoCA or SLUMS cognizance test can score mom and tell you what's going on, or not going on. If she scores low, indicating progressive dementia, you can take her to a neurologist for further testing or just accept that mom has dementia moving forward. Which may not be the case, but I'd be suspicious since you say she's been experiencing cognitive decline for 2+ years now. Dementia is not linear, so there will be good days and bad. My mother started her dementia journey acting perfectly fine, but introducing me as her mother. I thought she was joking around at first, and turned to look at her, expecting to see her laughing. She wasn't. Soon after, she scored an 18 on her MoCA exam and we knew she had progressive dementia. 6 years it took to become advanced, and she still had good days mixed in with days where she was pretty much incoherent.

Find out what's going on and don't guess. That's my suggestion. Nobody can tell you except a cognitive exam, too, bc we've seen LOTS of doctors diagnose an elder who's wandering the streets at 2 am as perfectly fine. While others dx dementia w/o conducting a test, just off the top of their head. Neither is okay. Rely on testing, that's my advice.

Best of luck to you

Bandy, a good PCP will send a patient with confusion, forgetfulness and the like for further investigation, not simply label it dementia.

For one thing, Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus needs to be ruled out. As do a lot of metabolic issues.

I so wish I had paid more attention when my mom started adding "and thing" to the end of most of her sentences when she was in her mid-80s.

She didn't have the forgetfulness about names or not understanding words that you point out, but in retrospect, it was the beginning of her inability to plan and prioritize.
She started to panic over minor incidents--bad weather, ants, burnt out light bulbs. She lived alone.

By the time we got her into the care of a geriatric doc (her regular PCP saw no problem) we'd needed to get her into a good Independent Living facility due to the panic and her mismanagement of her otc meds, after a lot of floundering around trying various kinds of care.

In the end, the geriatric doc recommended a geriatric psychiatrist who insisted on a full cognitive workup. Although mom was still "sharp as a tack" according to family, testing and an MRI revealed a prior undiagnosed stroke that had taken out her executive functioning and some more subtle language skills.

Knowing what was going on made planning more clear and led to greater sympathy from my brother, her POA, who, prior to testing was disdainful that mom was simply feeling sorry for herself and needed to "buck up".

Mom was a bit resistant to the testing, but we presented it as "we need a baseline" which was true. You don't know if cognitive decline is static or progressive unless you compare the results over time.

Wishing you and your mom well on this journey.

mamadrama, sounds like normal age decline. Both my sig-other and I would forget names. I just owe it to the fact that at our age [in our 70's] that the file drawers in our brain are overflowing with information so it can take some time to get the right file with the answer. And sometimes information has been misfiled :)

As for the complaint about when she sits, probably not related to the fall. At our age we all get aches and pains. Sometimes depending on the weather.

Try not to over think this, unless there is a real emergency.

The fall--she may have injured her tailbone. They are notorious for being slow healing and coming and going, sometimes for years.
I would ignore these symptoms if they were on one day. Sometimes an anxiety attack can put us off. Forgetting words is all to common for all we seniors. One day it took me all day to come up with nasturtium.
There are simple tests you can do. Draw a clock set at 15 minutes after 11. What are these three animals? Remember this name--the talk a while--ask for that name again. Look up the tests and make it a game. I often can't remember birthdays for a few moments, either (and, as I don't proofread my responses, I am often appalled at what I wrote when I stumble upon my responses later).
If this continues you will know soon enough and can speak with her with her MD about simple tests moving forward. Meanwhile be CERTAIN that he will, advance directive, and her POA are done and that you know where things are if you are the one named to act for her when she needs you to.
I know this is a worry and I am so sorry.