u/Spoopy1971

My biggest fear happened last night. My mom took off walking and no one even knew. We live in a small town and as she made her way by the fire station - six blocks away - some of the firemen were outside and saw her and realized something was off. They brought her inside the fire station and called the police. She could tell them her name and DOB but not where she lived. She could tell them she had a daughter and knew my first name but not my last name or phone number or where I live. Somehow, I’m not quite sure how, the police were able to figure out where she lived and took her home. She lives with her sister - also with dementia - who didn’t even know she had left the house.

I did not even find any of this out until hours later. My mom kept talking about a trip she had been on and how nice the police were. I thought she was talking out of her head as she does at night sometimes. I asked her sister if anything unusual had happened and that’s when she casually told me oh yeah your mom took off and the police brought her back. Ummm…WTF??

I called the police dept and the officer who took my mom home called me back and went over the details with me.

I have had a gut feeling she had been leading up to this happening for a while. In the evenings she keeps going outside in the yard and then back inside the house, over and over.

I’m making this post so that those of you who are at an early stage of dementia can be made aware that it CAN happen to any of us, even if our LO’s do not seem the type to ever do it, it can still happen. I asked my mom where she was trying to go and she said she didn’t know. By the time she went to bed last night she had no memory of any of it even happening.

My mom has Medicaid approval for nursing home but I have delayed exercising that option as LONG as possible because I know that once she goes into a facility a fast decline is likely. However, I am sad to say I think we are at the point it is inevitable and I’ve reached out to her case manager for next steps.