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From my personal experience (This REALLY HELPED for when is started to get bad).....
My Grandmother (now 93) was sharp as a tack until about 87, then slowly we saw the forgetfulness creep in, then serious dementia. She would walk in a room and not know why she was there, get scared, scream, cry...it was VERY sad and hard to watch. She is very, very far gone at this point and it has become much easier in many ways. The worst part for her was remembering everything fine one minute, then not the next. She is now in bed and just kept comfortable as the end could be any day. She has full time nurses...can you imagine all of a sudden seeing someone standing in front of you, not knowing who they are and why they are there and giving you a shot?!?! It was hard....
One thing we did (and I think a lot of people do) is when people get to a point where they think they are somewhere else, of don't remember who loved ones and friends are....people try to EXPLAIN the truth...."No Grandma, Its not your old friend, its your daughter" Or "Grandma, these are your grandkids, we just saw you yesterday". Its the logical thing to do, to "help them" remember. But what we found (and also learned from the nurses / doctors) was that is just confuses them more and makes them frustrated (Imagine a group of people telling you that the person in front of you was not who you thought they were, even though in your mind you know you are right, but everyone is telling you otherwise, you'd think you were going crazy) We went through it with my wifes father before he passed as well.
We found that for them (and us) it was SOOO much better to just go with the flow. We sit with her, tell stories, the kids hug her. She doesn't really know who we are, but thats ok, she knows AT THAT moment, she is loved and surrounds my smiling faces and that makes her happy.
If she says something like "Hi Shell" (my uncles name) I just say "Hi mom, you look great" and give her a kiss on the forehead. She is close to the end and you can't reverse dementia, especially by confusing them more....so we just smile, watch her favorite shows with her, bring the great grandkids over every weekend for a few minutes and wherever she thinks she is, or whoever she thinks we are....Thats what we roll with.
Keep is simple, Smile, just keep a feeling of Love in the room. Since we started doing that...she is happy and comfortable.
Hope it helps, It tough. Im sorry you (or anyone) has to deal with this stuff.
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