I have asked a couple of questions here before you might recognize me or my mom. Mom just turned 91, and age none of us siblings ever in a million years imagined happening. I am the POA and Executor and the oldest child, and I also live 10 minutes from mom's long term memory care facility. I had to move about 6 years ago from my home in CA to NC. Mom has had demential for probably10 or 11 years, but we forced her to move the first time after a fall back in 2009. We told her Enough is enough. At the beginning she ate full meals and desserts, with some help, she could talk more coherently and it wasn't so bad. She slowly declined in other areas. A little while later, perhaps in 2010 or 2011, she became incontinent, stopped walking and is now in a wheel chair or bed full time and she is sleeping a lot more than normal. Over the past 6 or 7 months mom started shedding weight. 4 to 6 lbs. a month for a few month. 2 months ago she lost 10 lbs and this past month, 8.4 lbs. She is down to 124.8 which is very very low for her and she looks emaciated. Not too long ago she had to start on a pureed diet. Pretty gross, but they had to start it as she was losing teeth (just dropping out) and the food she did manage to eat caused pain, so she pocketed her food between her cheek and gums to save it for later, to not be embarrassed about not eating. Long story short, she eats full breakfast lunch and dinner as well a 3 nutrient fortified shakes a day. She is probably about 5.8 or 9, might be 5'11" for all i know. She is in the very last stage of dementia, but she keeps hanging on. She can still recognize my voice, although it is a hit or miss situation there. So the weight loss does not jive with her appetite and the full day of nourished products she gets. Most of the time she is almost asleep as we feed her. So is there anything else that could be going on here, such as cancer or some other internal disease or malady we are just not looking for? After all with dementia, we see so many different types of death signs, or behaviors, it is all attributed to that. I just wonder if it is anything else. And no we are not going to take precautions to get her better as her quality of life is the worst already, and nothing can improve it. So I was just wondering why the incongruity between the strong appetite, eating well, but consistent weight loss since 7 months ago and the loss seems to be a bit larger in the past couple of months than the first few. And then before that, she had gained a lot of weight over the past 3 years. It's just a mystery to me.
Moms AL didn't say anything to me about Moms weight loss, I noticed it and questioned.
Since she hadn't lost more than five lbs, they said nothing. But this was from the first of the year. They didn't count theweight loss in the previous year. I went to the Nurse and explained that Mom was on Thyroid medication and weight loss could be a sign the med needed adjusting.
There is a saying ... "Don't do the tests if you wouldn't do the treatment."
Thank you again
I know you love your mom a lot and I'm glad you are asking these questions. I would follow up with the doctor. Review her blood work, her medications, I think you are on the right track. I could be cancer. One of the signs of cancer is unexplained weight loss. If you want consider getting a second and third opinion about your mom's health. For myself I regret saying "I guess this is just the way it is" towards the end of my dad's life. I failed to see he was having heart failure. It was the reason for his weight loss. We all do the best we can, but it never hurts to dig deeper if you can.