A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how I was forgetting stuff more than usual. It was just after my mum started exhibiting some worrying symptoms of memory loss and confusion. She has forgotten this and that, like me, and like most of us, now and again. A birthday or anniversary. A scheduled phone call. Something someone said about something. At first, her 28-year lead time on me made it quite natural to accept her lapses in memory, particularly short-term, as nothing more than age-related.

It never bothered me that there are numerous almost-full bags of sugar in her condo. This is true. Whenever my mum forgets, misplaces something or recovers something that she thought she had mislaid or lost, she would give thanks by saying a prayer to a specific ‘god’ or ‘higher being’ – with a few tablespoons of sugar from an unopened, new bag of sugar. After the prayer, which is always on a Thursday evening, she would spoon a bit of sugar onto the palm of my hand to scoop into my mouth.

An offering is not permitted from an already opened bag of sugar. I did suggest using one bag of already used sugar for these prayers, and then donating to charity the cost of all the bags of sugar that she would normally use in 6 months or a year. The idea was vetoed. To be fair I too perform this thanksgiving ritual, probably, as often as my mum. My gratefulness extends even wider. I say thanks with sugar for lost and found items. And, when I overcome a difficult day, people and/or situation. Successes or anything that gets me through an expected or perceived ordeal, basically. I have four near-full bags of sugar in my pantry. My husband used to wonder about these opened bags of sugar. Not anymore. He simply scoops his share of sugar whenever I do a prayer. Ironically, I couldn’t get onboard with my own suggestion of using used bags of sugar. Hmm…

Back to my mum. Her condition changed somewhat drastically after she had a fall in early August. She fell off her double bed on to a tatami mat. A buffer that I place on the floor each evening for just such an event. After the fall, she seemed more confused and forgetful. What was disconcerting was she couldn’t remember or recognize her condo, the home she’s been living in for almost a decade. She didn’t know where the bathroom and altar were. Her two go-to places. My family’s standing joke used to be – ‘Where’s ma? Praying or in the bathroom.’ Neither hold much interest for her now. She’s still hesitant in her own condo. She thinks there’s a downstairs floor. She also began to recount stories about people and events, which sounds like a combination of fiction and reality. She sometimes sees things or shapes that are not quite visible or obvious to me or my two older brothers. Her three carers at the moment.

Brother number 2 likened my mum’s confusion to a boxer who takes a hit or several hits to the head and is concussed. He reckoned the fall may have triggered the confusion although there were no visible bruises or pain to her head. Her cardiologist ordered a CT-brain scan. The findings revealed no injuries, no internal bleeding.

So, why the confusion and memory loss? And, why now and why the rapid decline? The very likely reason could be her Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF), which dropped to 35% in June, 2021 down from 54 % in 2019. EF is the percentage of blood the heart pumps with each heartbeat. Her cardiologist prescribed another echocardiogram after her fall. Sadly, my mum’s EF had plummeted further to 28% from 35% in less than two months. Her heart is surely failing. Since the echocardiogram in August, her EF may have worsened even more.  

One of the many symptoms of low EF, for someone with heart failure like my mum, is mental confusion. Based on what I read on Google, yes Google, it might be vascular dementia. Vascular dementia describes a set of symptoms that can include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. In vascular dementia, these symptoms occur when the brain is damaged because of problems with the supply of blood to the brain[1].

On the other hand, sister number 4, who has a medical background thinks it might be Hypoxia. Hypoxia is a condition where the tissues are not oxygenated adequately, usually due to an insufficient concentration of oxygen in the blood. The oxygen deprivation can have severe adverse effects on various body cells that need to perform important biological processes[2].

Whatever it is, it’s not looking good.