Mom, memory, and emails

Had a bit of a confusing phone call with my mom on Tuesday afternoon. When I answered she said "hi, that is so strange, I tried this number and I got someone else". I'm like what? my number? Then she said her BF tried it and got someone else, too. Plus, he was trying to email me and it wasn't going through.

As far as I know she has my number in her cell phone contacts, she she doesn't specifically have to dial it each time (or heaven knows who'd she be calling). She was trying to give my info to her BF, so he could call or email me. She said he wanted to thank us for a good visit, when they stopped by a few weeks ago (mostly he wanted to let me know about the upcoming dr. visit and his concerns). I don't know what number or email she was giving him or she was dialing. She read me off my ph# that was correct. I gave her my email again, but haven't yet received an email from him. I have his email address, from one of her "funny" emails she will occasionally forward, that includes, his email, so I am just going to email him directly, so then he can just reply to me.

She said she has a doctor appointment on July 1st and her BF is going to go with her, so that is good. She's been having several days off and on where she doesn't feel well, when she gets up, and then it passes. Plus, her memory problems, and her BF thinks she should get checked out again. I'm glad he's going, as he'll be able to tell the doctor more, as well as remember what the doctor tells her. She already had a brain MRI the last time she went (this was last December) and they said it was normal. At that time, she told me the doctor told her he might have her go off of the anxiety medication(s), as that can cause cognitive problems, but he wasn't going to do it until summer. I had asked her why he wanted to wait until summer and she didn't know.  Then a couple months ago, I asked her about that again, (because I figured the doctor wouldn't follow up, she would have to) and she had no recollection of her doctor telling her that at all. In fact, she didn't even know why she was taking the medication or what it was for...she thought it was for her excessive sweating. I said, no, those are for anxiety. You don't take anything for the sweating (she's had that for years), though they think that might also be caused by that medication. Then she said "oh, well I don't even know why I'm still taking that".

I do know that several years (maybe 4-5) ago, she tried to go off one or both (she takes Paxil and Zanax) and it sent her emotions all over the place for a week or two, so she went back on. I just googled:

Using ALPRAZolam together with PARoxetine may increase side effects such as dizziness, drowsiness, confusion, and difficulty concentrating. Some people, especially the elderly, may also experience impairment in thinking, judgment, and motor coordination.taking these meds together

She's probably been on these for at least 15 years, so would have been 63 or so when she started.

She says she's not having any issues driving or getting lost. Or taking her meds, or paying bills. She's just forgetful of words for things and also doesn't remember people telling her stuff, at times. It will be interesting to see what another doctor appointment brings. I know as my grandma got older, she often didn't feel well in the mornings and if she had scheduled an appointment in the morning, my mom often had to reschedule it.

So, I haven't looked at her AOL account in a few weeks, to check her spam. I was checking it almost daily and the majority of it seemed to be now going directly to her spam folder, so I felt the issue wasn't a problem much now and I thought she now understood to ignore those deactivation emails and not reply. WELL, I just went into her account again....tons of spam in her regular inbox. I checked her sent emails.....sure enough, she's been getting some emails from some fake account, saying they were going to deactivate her AOL account.  She keeps replying!! I don't know how many times I have explained to her these are SCAMS, just ignore these emails, do NOT open and do NOT reply. So, I guess it's back to monitoring and getting rid of those emails before she see's them.

Obviously, if she can't remember to just simply ignore these emails, after we've repeatedly discussed them, she is having cognitive problems. I sent her an email asking if she's getting much spam anymore? and to just remember, if she gets any about deactivating to just ignore and do not reply.  She replied back to me last night that she is getting some spam, but she is just ignoring them. No..she is not! LOL. Since June 4th she has replied 11 times "do not deactivate my account".