Today I found out some worrying news about my 74 year old grandmother. She lives in a rest home and is pretty active, extremely intelligent, has never shown any serious symptoms of any major disease (she does monitor her blood sugar, but I do not think she is diabetic). She also has relatively poor vision.
However, over the past 12 hours or so:
- the home staff found her in the dining room (the dining room is closed today) sitting for 4-5 hours. She said she had thought there was a valentine's day party (the party was wednesday)
- when my uncle went to visit her, she was sitting in just her shirt and depends. Thats not something my grandma typically does.
- she said she going to see a play tonight at 7. My mom called her 10 minutes later and my grandmother said it was at 4. Then a few minutes later she said she wasn't really sure but thinks it was at 7 (it turned out to be 4). Keep in mind my grandmother is the most punctual and organized person I know. I've never seen her late for anything.
- she talks to us on aol instant messenger. She was talking to my mom on there and she was understanding the convo, as her responses made sense and she did make a joke of the sort we've become accustomed to from her (my mom said she thought my grandmother should be checked and my grandmother responded, "like plaid?"). However, her typing was very poor (strange variations of capital and lowercase) and her spelling was off too. Some words almost looked as if she was spelling phonetically as opposed to the real way. This is uncharacteristic as friday (the last time I talked to her on aim) her typing was perfect and her spelling was as well. She also used words shes always used (for example, she always says noshed instead of nibbled). When my mom asked her if she had any of her vd candy left, she said "i noshed on 95" (we're pretty sure she meant 95%). She also mentioned that vince (my uncle) stopped by, so she is aware and understanding of things.
- when my mom called her, my mom said she sounded pretty bad (slurred speech, one word answers). However, she did say that she wasn't having trouble moving and didn't have a headache or anything.
- when my uncle came to take her to the hospital, she didn't let him in. He got security to let him in and she claimed that she had asked repeatedly "who is it?" and no one answered. She is very disoriented.
- sometime either during the trip to the hospital or at the hospital (not sure), she soiled herself.
Shes in the hospital having tests run, but i'm just trying to get a feel for what else it could be besides a stroke.
Any ideas? Am I off on the stroke diagnosis? Whats throwing me off is the fact she has no headaches or weakness or paralysis.
I know I know let the doctors run their tests but i'd like some hypothesis as well.
