What kind of memory loss is this?
I hope to one day get my mother evaluated for dementia, but until that day I just analyze things she does. I'm wondering what you guys make of this. So my mother still lives independently and manages her own finances. The cable company talked her into accepting a new set of channels "free" for three months. For month four they began to charge her and she was outraged, hurt, personally angry at the company and got them to rescind the charge. She told me she is still angry at the company and won't allow them to come fix a problem she's having with their cable box. I pointed out to her that the free period followed by a charge was standard practice and she said she had NEVER heard of such a thing before. This is completely untrue - this represents a memory loss going back many years at least. What do you all make of this? I worry how much longer she'll be able to manage her affairs. Thanks everyone.
You do want to keep a close watch on this, because confusion in managing finances can snowball quickly into serious problems.
It just really worries me that she completely forgot ever knowing that cable companies make free temporary offers when she has been familiar with this for at least two decades but now it's news to her. I wonder what else she's forgetting and at what point these lapses require action.
Short answers: could you take your mother in for a general checkup, have the evaluation done then?
Could you have your mother's nonessential bills, such as cable, sent to you? It's one way to stay aware of what is being charged.
Poor answer, just one that helps me.
You could clearly see from the checkbook registers that her first mini stroke had occurred 3 1/2 years earlier. Periodically, it would worse and she eventually stopped balancing her statements. After the December 2012 stroke which brought frightening hallucinations and a personality change, the numbers quite dramatically changed again. Large numbers, written at a slant across several lines. The checks she was writing to people and companies looked pretty normal except for the declining signature. Math and number were obviously the first struggle she encountered.
A glance at your mom's current register might lessen your concerns. My MIL also had started sending checks to various organizations which she hadn't done before. As said somewhere on the site before, at some point during those past couple of years, someone accessed her information and money was being directed out of her checking account. The withdrawals were clearly printed on her statements.
She had hinted to her sister a couple of times that paying bills was getting confusing, but that was all she said. Someone else's cable bill was being paid for out of her account. Most of the odd withdrawals were to Capitol One accounts that were fraudulently set up by the thief. We don't know still who did it. The bank only refunded her for the past 60 days- the rest was a loss.