Is this just normal aging?

[meduser123]

My mom (aged 60) is having mild language problems. She confuses my name and the cats name. She says "goodnight" in the morning and "good morning" at night (almost every other day now).!The words she mixes up are closely related to each other: she never slurs her words, says made up words, or mixes two completely unrelated words though.

On the other hand, she's also extremely organized. She's good with directions. She's the manager at her workplace and doing well (people love having her as a boss) and she's very independent. She keeps up with the news and loves reading and doing puzzles. She's very social. English is not her first language - she learned at the age of 35 when she immigrated from brazil to america. Even though she speaks as well as a native by now, I just thought I should mention this.

There's no history of Alzheimer's or dementia in my family (maybe my grandpa on my dads side was in the early stages, but no one on my moms side). My moms mother - my grandma - was incredibly eccentric, putting shoe polish in coffee and saying strange things in social settings. No one ever thought she had dementia however. Since it was a lifelong thing, people assumed the behavior wasn't anything to be worried about.

My mom is a bit absentminded. She gets sidetracked easily. Sometimes i have to say things over and over again before she hears me. She's always been a bit emotional, but I feel like she's more prone to having agitated outbursts now (it may just be my imagination - my sister does the exact same thing). I'm a very distracted person myself, and my mom says I get it from my grandma

Am I worrying about nothing? I just wanted to put my worries to rest. I find that now more than ever, I'm constantly worrying about my mom and her mental health. Alzheimer's is a big fear of mine.

[rumpled]

I would just take her to the doctor. Sounds like she is pretty normal but may need a b-12 shot or something, hopefully!

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

Hum, hard to say could be anything, not sure it's anything to worry about,  I say have her checked out

[meduser123]

No, she doesn't repeat things ever. She only mixes up words. It isn't severe at all - it happens maybe once a day or once every other day - but a worrier like me has noticed it.

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

Does she repeat her self

[meduser123]

She doesn't confuse night with day, just the words. She always gets frustrated and says "do what I mean, not what I say"

[rumpled]

The first thing to do is take her to the doctor and get a regular exam. Gently bring up your concerns so the doc can run tests on thyroid, vitamins and things to rule out simple things that can cause issues.

Some being absent minded is pretty normal. So you have to understand what is normal, and what is dementia. Dementia starts out pretty mildly, but progresses to encompass the entire body. If she is confusing day with night as in not sleeping at night and sleeping during the day, then that is known as sundowning. That is a symptom, but I would guess the rest is normal.