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Her new neighbor, who is a retired doctor, said that she has full blown dementia. She went to go to her mailbox but forgot to take her house key with her. He has never seen her neuro psych eval results. And he just met her. She gets confused at times and we are planning on moving her to assisted living pretty soon. She just lacks socialization.

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I don't care if he is a retired doctor, I wouldn't call an opinion from a neighbour a diagnosis, and certainly not if his only exposure to her is 5 minutes in the hallway.
It certainly wouldn't hurt to take her in to her own physician for a check up though.
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Judy79 Jun 2019
Been there done that. She had her neuro pscyh eval in April and just had the results given to her June 20th. She is a very happy person and not a mean streak in her. Planning on moving her to assisted living as soon as we can. Tomorrow we are going to be taking a tour of where I want her to go to. The doctor that would be her doctor, I work for. So I would trust him and he would give her the best care possible. Plus the lady that is giving us the tour tomorrow knows that I know him. So that would be a plus for her knowing that. Plus she would have my brother down there back if anything bad would happen.
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My reading is that mother has had a proper assessment from a neuropsychiatrist, but meanwhile the neighbour, having seen mother in action, has made what I have to say is his own pretty cheeky assessment.

I forget my house keys about every two to three years. Have done since I first owned any. I'm on two strikes with my current neighbours, who very kindly keep a spare set for me, and am getting quite neurotic about not making it three.

Neighbour doctor may not be completely wrong, but he'd have to define "full blown" and show his reasoning. He may, too, have been speaking for effect, of course, anxious to alert this nice lady's family to the urgency of the situation. I wouldn't ignore reports from him if I were you, though, all the same.
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Judy79 Jun 2019
I won't report him at all. Just moved to the area. She pretty much listens to me. She is just lonely and wanted to go out for a walk. The apt complex where she is living doesn't have any sidewalks..yet.
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Do you mean that your mom was diagnosed via a neuro psych evaluation with dementia and her new MD neighbor concurs?
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Judy79 Jun 2019
She was diagnosed by a neuro psych doctor. My plans are to move her to assisted living very soon. Home health care to evaluate her today to see if she would qualify to use them and she didn't. I did tell him that she was diagnosed with the mild unspecified and he said, no, she has full blown. And he just met her. I can understand why he said that. I also need to find out if she has a UTI. Her doctor didn't want to check her urine a week ago and I don't know why. I have the order and will see if the lab is open tomorrow afternoon to take her then to get it checked.
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Judy; I'm wondering if you heard this "diagnosis" from the doctor himself or from your mom?

Someone who has been diagnosed with even "mild" dementia should probably not be living unsupervised. Does she live alone?
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Judy79 Jun 2019
She had a neuro psych eval done in April and we just got the results. He isn't a neuro psych doc either. Plans are to move her to assisted living and I know exactly where I want her to move. This will be one more move for her but at least this will be her last place to move until the Lord calls her home.
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Not sure what kind of advice you're seeking. Your mom has already been diagnosed with dementia......mild or moderate, all dementia is technically "full blown". Some days are worse than others, sometimes confusion is heightened while other times they're quite lucid. I think you are doing the absolute right thing by placing mom in a nice AL.......hopefully they have a memory care unit or building there as well, because you do not want to move her AGAIN if she progresses to severe dementia. Mostly all the residents in regular AL have some milder level of dementia or cognitive decline, so the caregivers are familiar with the behavior and know how to handle it. The situation you've found sounds perfect and I applaud you doing it sooner rather than later.
Best of luck!
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Judy79 Jun 2019
Thanks! My brother seems to be on board also. He wanted a newer AL place but I like this place.
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