With the advantage of hindsight, I can see that confusion symptoms came about the same time as memory loss symptoms for Cindy. They manifested themselves in Cindy returning home late from work because she had trouble finding her way to or from a new patient she was assigned, usually in the nearby city of Torrington. I did not think this abnormal at the time; my career was in mapping and I was the navigator of the family. Yet Cindy successfully used map and compass when we hiked the Continental Divide Trail and that could have been enough for me to put two and two together. The streets of a small city are not that confusing.
For the record, my failure to identify Cindy’s confusion early on did not really matter because I did react to her concurrent memory loss symptoms, but for you this might matter if you notice confusion symptoms before memory loss, likely manifested in confusion of time or space. This also matters as Cindy’s confusion symptoms came before we hiked across the country, a “treatment” which reversed her cognitive dysfunction in part. This means that if you catch confusion symptoms early enough you may be able to hold off dementia indefinitely, for you or yours, by following the brain health checklist.
Cindy’s bouts with confusion now has advanced more to what might be called a fog. At times she wanders around the house with something in her hand, such as a tube of toothpaste, not knowing why she is carrying the toothpaste or how it got into her hand. Once in awhile this leads to sadness, when she pauses to look at the toothpaste and realizes that the past few moments of her life, and many moments in general, are lost to her. I had found that the best way to draw Cindy out of fog or confusion is to bring her into the present moment through social and physical interaction, like draping my arm around her and telling a joke.
I used to be able to joke about what Cindy was carrying and we both would have a good laugh. However, just this morning that strategy did not work. Cindy was carrying a phone charge cable in her hand. A big smile came across my face and we both knew a joke would be coming. Yet Cindy cut the joke off as she looked at the cable and said “Don’t” as she struggled to hold back tears about lost moments while the present, and my presence, provided no consolation. Confusion has its cost.
